Traitors, Trials and Trysts
by Fire.Rose.Black
Summary: What if the 7th Shadow Rider wasn't Banner? What if the Shadow lord wasn't Kagemaru? What if the Shadow Riders weren't the big evil? Set after the Spirit Day episode. Yaoi and Het. Dub names.
1. Lunches and Lighthouses

**Pairings: **Chazz/Syrus, Alexis/Jaden, Atticus/Zane, Bastion/not sure yet

**Warnings: **Yaoi, use of English names(never seen the Japanese version), OOCness(Hey, if people can have Syrus committing suicide, I can have Chazz be nice-ish. In a stuck-up, sarcastic way of course.)

**Disclaimer: **The only thing I own is my friend Nina, even if she says I don't.

**Summary: **Syrus skips lunch to do some thinking. Chazz skips lunch so that he doesn't have to see Jaden and Alexis

This isset after the Duel Monster Spirit Day festival episode, as that's where the dub is at this moment. Also, I have heard the plot to the next episodes and the next season, and I don't like it very much so….this story is basically what **I** would do if I was in control. This won't be all romance, I swear. These first few chapters are just setting up the back story. Thank you for reading all that. To the story-

-1-

Syrus had a problem. It had black spiky hair, grey eyes, and went by the name of Chazz Princeton. Of course, Syrus had many other problems, like Shadow Riders trying to steal his best friend's souls, the fact that his brother had briefly been turned into a doll, and that he was flunking. The problem called Chazz, however, was at the forefront of his mind.

The bluenette straightened his jacket with a sigh, looking out at the water from the dock. He was skipping lunch, but didn't really care now. Chumley and Jaden were probably fighting over the last bits of food, including Chazz's mostly uneaten portion. The mighty Princeton still refused to eat more of the meager fair than he needed to be healthy. Some said Alexis and Zane were smuggling the thin boy food from the Obelisk cafeteria.

Leaning back against the lighthouse, Syrus reflected that he was a really bad decision maker. It was stupid to skip lunch to sit and stare at nothing. He was horrible thinking under pressure, like in duels. The worst decisions he made, however, were about his crushes. Syrus had known for a long time he was gay and had felt small attraction for a few other boys when he was little, but he had never had crushes until he'd come to Duel Academy. There was a reason that he claimed to be attracted to female monsters. It was to cover up for the fact that he felt nothing for real girls. He had been terrified when Dark Magician girl came to life. Thank goodness she could only appear once a year…

Jaden had been an obvious first crush. He was one of the best young duelists around and a great friend. His pure enthusiasm coupled with the seeming lack of thinking made him adorably clueless. It Jaden's world, everything was optimistic and 'sweet'. Brimming with joy and flushed with excitement, he was amazing to watch duel, which meant that Syrus went out his way to never miss one of the boy's matches.

Of course, the near sighted boy had not been the only one to notice Jaden's good traits. Alexis Rhodes, queen of Obelisk and his brother's good friend, had set her sight on the Slifer. She flirted with him, becoming more and more obvious over time. Syrus could have told her to save her efforts. Jaden's only passion was for dueling. When asked to explain how he escaped the strange effect of the little Belowski, Jaden had even mentioned that he dueled even in his dreams. Nevertheless, he was still, oh, so cute that Syrus, Alexis, and several others, girls and boys alike, had sighed themselves sick after him.

Chumley had guessed and confronted Syrus about it. He had told the younger boy that he wasn't a hater but Syrus was living in a dream land if he thought that Jaden would ever respond in kind. Sexuality and hormones seemed to have passed Jaden by, at least at that point. Right after Duel Monster Spirit Day, the brown haired boy had suddenly grown up and discovered he had fallen for Alexis and the two had started dating. Chumley had watched Sy for signs of heartbreak, but found none. Syrus's crush on the other boy had dimmed much earlier.

Yes, Alexis was welcome to Jaden in Syrus's mind. The bluenette had fallen for another. Someone who was taller, thinner, and darker in hair, eyes, clothes and spirit. Chazz seemed like the opposite of Jaden. Indeed, the two had been rivals for a long time. Now they were on good enough terms. Though Chazz might deny it, one could even say they were friends. They were still very different, though.

Chazz was unfriendly, resistant to positive advances of any kind. A confident exterior gave the illusion that he was cocky, but the academy's student body had learned that he was covering up for feelings of being a failure to his brothers. Disowned and disgraced, the boy still somehow pushed others away with barbed comments that stung. He talked to himself a lot, like a crazy person. Jaden said he was talking to duel monsters, but Syrus wasn't sure if that was always true.

Still, Chazz was charismatic. He couldn't help but draw people to him. Plus, inside he was weak and vulnerable. Syrus knew the feeling. They were very alike. Both had brother problems, though in the end Zane loved Syrus while Slade and Jaggur…did not love Chazz. Syrus understood Chazz, and Chazz, if he put his mind to it, could understand Syrus.

Of course, Chazz obviously liked Alexis. That hurt Syrus, hurt him a lot. He had to stand by like a moron while Chazz stared longingly after Jaden and Alexis. In the end, it was all rather ironic, as Bastion had pointed out when he had found Syrus sniffling and demanded to know the cause. Chazz's heartbreak caused Syrus to experience the same thing. Sy had not found it that amusing.

"You're not at lunch." The voice made the bluenette jump. He half-turned to stare into slate eyes and smiled slightly, scooting over to make room. The Princeton's youngest son sat down.

"You aren't either." Syrus said. "I wasn't that hungry." His stomach quickly told him otherwise, to Chazz's obvious amusement. The younger boy blushed, reddening even more when he found a packet of chips stuck into his face. He took it with a nod of thanks and eagerly ripped the plastic open.

"The food in there is shit, and I have better things to do than hear Jaden mooning on about his girlfriend. I wonder if Burstinatrix is jealous what with all the attention going to a female other than herself. She must not be used to it." Syrus looked up at the weird tone in the other boy's voice, and shook his head.

"Jaden's pretty adamant that Avian's enough for her…oh wait, you were being sarcastic again, weren't you?" He suddenly realized as Chazz rolled his eyes heavenward with a sigh.

"How'd you guess?" Syrus stuck his tongue out at his crushe's sardonic smile. It was such a sexy smile, but Syrus forced himself not to focus on that. If he did, the conversation would become incredibly awkward. Syrus noticed that Chazz wasn't saying anything else. Keeping the conversation going was up to him.

"You really like Alexis, huh?" Syrus had no idea _that_ was going to pop out of his mouth. He wished he could retract the words, but bit his tongue, intently watching the pale boy for reaction. He was surprised when Chazz only lifted his hand and waved it lazily.

"I suppose I did, but somehow hearing the ongoing list of her virtues everyday has made her seem unappealing. Watching Jaden and her doting on each other is rather sickening. She is, at this moment, in our lunch room, nearly sitting on his lap. Even if the glop here wasn't so disgusting, that would put me off my food." Syrus blinked at the seriousness of Chazz's answer. So…he didn't like Alexis anymore. That was interesting, very interesting. He then furrowed his brow when Chazz said it was sickening.

"I dunno, I sort of think it's cute, you know?" He explained. The older boy looked at his fellow Slifer with an oddly keen expression in his eyes. "I mean, Alexis has been waiting for this for such a long time, and Jaden always goes overboard with stuff. It's sweet that they were able to admit their feelings for each other."

"Hmm. What you mean to say is that you're jealous that Alexis was able to confront Jaden and you can do that to the person you like." Syrus looked in alarm at the older boy, but Chazz was staring out at the ocean, expression indecipherable. "You like the duel monster, right? Dark Magician Girl?"

"Of course I do, how can you not?" Syrus quickly said, as he always said when people questioned him. Then he suddenly shook his head. Maybe it was because he liked Chazz, or maybe it was just that the usually mysterious boy had opened up to him a bit, but he wanted to be honest. "No, I don't. I just say I do so that people don't bug me with guesses."

"Good strategy." Chazz commented, voice emotionless. "But you realize that if you pretend to like a card than real people who have crushes on you would think their chances are zero, zip, zilch, nada, as Jaden would say." Syrus groaned lightly as the other boy looked at him in surprise. "What now?"

"Chazz, come on. Like me? Not likely." Syrus smiled at his almost play on words. "In case you've forgotten, this is Syrus Truesdale you're talking to, not Zane Truesdale. I'm bad at dueling, in Slifer, fail tests, Shadow riders favor me as bait, I'm short, and have glasses."

"What happened to all the 'I go the looks' part?" Chazz asked, smirking slightly as Syrus mimicked Chazz by rolling his eyes. "Besides, you're the only one who compares you to Zane. You shouldn't try to measure up to the people you think are better than you. In the end, people like you because you're the way you are, whether you seem weak or strong. No I was NOT making reference to you three, you little snot rags!" Syrus blinked at the older boy's suddenly elevated tone and annoyed expression.

"Ummm…" He trailed off, not sure what to say. Chazz blushed.

"I am not talking to myself. I know you can't see them or hear them, but I can. They are real." He argued, then suddenly sighed "Anyway, as I was saying, we all like you for who you are." Syrus widened his eyes slightly and watched as Chazz mentally kicked himself. It was obvious he was biting his tongue. "Not that I, you know, like a slacker like you. I was just making a point." Syrus laughed.

"Sure, Chazz, sure. And I'm Yugi Moto." Chazz blinked, offended. "It's okay for you to admit that you have friends, Chazz." Syrus told him seriously. The other boy exhaled in pique.

"You sound like a crazy shrink." Chazz informed him. "If that isn't an oxymoron, that is." Syrus laughed. "You never gave me a real answer to why you're down here instead of eating lunch like a normal person."

"You're not eating lunch." Syrus pointed out. Chazz smirked smugly.

"I'm not a normal person. I'm Chazz Princeton, and only the rest of you lesser mortals need sustenance." He gently mocked his former attitude, which he had allowed to slip slightly since rejoining Duel Academy. "And you're still dodging the question."

"Let someone defeat a few Dark Scorpions and suddenly they think they're a detective." Syrus teased. At Chazz's glare, he sighed, defeated. "Okay, okay. I'm down here to think. Don't laugh at me, Chazz Princeton!" He ordered.

"Wasn't gonna, Syrus Truesdale." His face was a picture of innocence. Syrus snorted. "Thinking about what? You're secret crush?" Syrus smiled slightly.

"I was thinking about you." Syrus realized how that sounded and felt his cheeks flaming. "I, I mean, I was thinking about how much you've changed and how you and Jaden aren't enemies anymore." He glanced up quickly into those grey eyes and detected a flicker of something. Was it disappointment?

"Oh." Both boys seemed content to let their discussion trail off there, turning inward to think about things. Syrus watched waves rolling softly and wondered how he could be so calm what with Chazz sitting so close to him, so close that he could feel the other boy's body heat radiating like a small furnace. He let himself examine his 'secret crush' thorough the corner of his eye.

Back against the lighthouse tower, knees folded up against his chest, hands tucked loosely around said knees, the boy looked smaller and more peaceful than usual. Normally hard features were softened in uncharacteristic thought. Syrus let his sneaking gaze wander down Chazz's jaw line. His chin was hard and stubborn, but his mouth was soft and full, contradictory signs. Dark hair and clothes set off the paleness of his skin. Syrus wondered at how pale he was, they certainly spent a lot of time outside.

As always, the other boy's expression was unclear. His eyes were thoughtful and his entire posture made him seem slightly far away, as if he was off in some kind of little Chazz-world, where god-knows went on. Many people had tried to solve the mystery that was Chazz, but none really had success. Though they knew his brothers were unsupportive and over all generally evil, they didn't know a lot of Chazz's past. It made Syrus sad to realize that the other boy could have been abused, or worse, and nobody knew, because he wouldn't open up. Syrus himself had long since stopped trying to figure the other boy out. Just when they thought they had him pegged, he surprised them. Syrus just waited it all out.

Syrus sighed softly and brought his own knees up so he was in the same position as Chazz, and then tucked his chin on his knees. He stopped staring at his crush, fearful of being caught and ridiculed, so instead watched ocean gently lapping at the docks. Syrus loved to watch water, but he couldn't swim for his life. Zane could swim. Zane loved swimming.

Syrus remembered the time Zane had tried to teach him to swim by pushing him into the water. He had thrashed his arm and legs in an imitation of what he'd seen his brother do a thousand times, but nothing seemed to happen. Strong arms had encircled him and brought him up to the surface. Zane had told him to try harder, then let go again. Syrus had sunk once more. This repeated for several minutes before Zane gave up.

The memory brought a slight smile to the small boy's lips. Those were the good old days, before Zane had become obsessed with dueling. Then the barrier between the two had grown. To Zane, dueling had become his life's ambition, one that his parents supported greatly. They figured that if Zane could do it, Syrus could, too. At least this way, they figured Zane would be around to help his brother through even the worst of predicaments. They sure hadn't planned on Shadow Riders coming, using Sy as a hostage more than once, stealing his brothers soul, losing his brothers soul back, so on and so forth.

Syrus glanced over at Chazz and found the other boy watching him. As soon as he realized he was caught, the pale boy's skin turned pink. Sy watched him curiously, heart hammering. Now that he thought about it, several little somethings had been weird about their entire conversation…unless he was just trying to trick himself, subconsciously, into believing something that wasn't true...

"You have chip stuff on your cheek." Chazz hurriedly stammered. Syrus reached up and wiped his face quickly.

"Oh…well, lunch is almost over, we'd better get to class, Chazz." Syrus said, quickly getting up and grabbing his school bag. Chazz did the same.

"Hey Syrus," Chazz started. Syrus turned to him, waiting patiently as the older boy walked up to be right next to him. Syrus had to crane his neck a bit to look in the boy's eyes. "I personally think you're better looking than you're brother." Chazz suddenly leaned down and brushed his lips gently against his fellow slifer's. He straightened with a blush and hurried ahead, leaving a very confused but happy Syrus to stare after him, hand pressed to his mouth in wonder. Even Jay would have to agree that was a real kiss.

-1-

Alright, that's chapter one! Should I leave it as a one-shot? Only your reviews will tell! I probably will anyway though, because I have no life. Well, I do, but it can fit in a peanut shell and involves waaaay too many tests for my comfort. This is the first fanfic I have ever shown anyone, so please be gentle. If you do flame, however, I will use the heat to warm my ickle toesies(Fred and George moment).

Announcement: I need a beta. If you are interested, please contact me via review or PM. Thank-you!

-Edge.of,Insanity.Was.Long.Ago


	2. Notes and New Beginnings

**Warnings: **Yaoi, use of English names(never seen the Japanese version), OOCness, Chazz has a naughty mind(I love him…)

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Yu-Gi-Oh! GX it would not be allowed on Cartoon Network and I would know Japanese.

**Summary: **Chazz goes to class and proceeds to ignore everything Crowler says, then has an interesting talk with Syrus.

Thank you everyone who reviewed! Especial thanks to Feral Faust and Fickle, who put this on his/her fav list!

-2-

Chazz grinned slightly as he walked away. A quick glance over his shoulder showed that the boy was shocked, seemingly blown away. Good, that was what he was hoping would happen. Well, to be precise, he had been hoping for anything that didn't involve Chazz being a) being thrown off a dock, b) being laughed at, c) being yelled at, or d) having a group of Obelisks, lead by Zane, leap out form behind the lighthouse and beating the crap outta him. Option's a and c were highly unlikely, but Chazz had learned to expect the unexpected.

Chazz sat down at an empty chair, behind Jaden and Alexis. Chumley turned and rolled his eyes. Chazz rolled his eyes back. Alexis currently had her head on Jaden's shoulder and he was playing with her hair. On Alexis's other side Zane and Atticus sat, conversing deeply about something. Even though they technicly didn't belong in this class, they were here because they hadn't yet replaced Banner so the classes were all squished together. Chazz smirked at the back of Zane's head.

_I'm head over heels for your brother, just kissed him, and you have absolutely no clue._ He thought. The thought pleased him. Suddenly he felt an elbow bump him. He turned toward the muttered apology and smiled slightly at Bastion.

"Hello Chazz. I was meaning to ask you something about your deck. With you ojamas, is it possible for the effects of your spell card used to fuse them to be negated? Unfused, as it were?" With that, the two got into a lively discussion on duel monsters. Jaden turned around and had to add his two cents, thus drawing Alexis in. Atticus watched with interest, Zane did as well, but neither commented. Syrus hurried in, almost late. He glanced with a blush at Chazz, then started for Jaden's row. When he saw Zane, however, he stopped. Clearly sitting next to the cause of his embarrassment was a better alternative to sitting next to his brother. Ouch.

"Hey Syrus!" Jaden greeted with a grin. "You missed lunch! Even Chazz showed up a little bit today, before disappearing." Chazz made a show of glaring at the younger boy. "Not that it's a bad thing that Chazz likes to randomly disappear sometimes." Jaden added hurriedly. Chazz leaned back with a smirk.

"Why Alexis, I believe Chazz has better control of your boyfriend then you do." Bastion teased. Alexis stuck her tongue out at him. Jaden rolled his eyes, sulking. Chazz merely grinned cockily.

"Well of course I do. I'm Chazz Princeton, I can control anyone I feel like." He explained. "Including you Bastion. I just don't see a reason to do so. I can do my homework well enough as it is, and that's the only use you seem to have.'

"Come on Chazz, you could try to be a little nicer sometimes." Alexis gently told him. Chazz made a face at her.

"I could do a lot of things, that doesn't mean I will." He told her, grinning at the multiple meanings of the comment. He glanced over the group. Syrus was laughing softly at his antics, Jaden was clueless, Bastion looked offended but amused, Chumley was laughing himself sick, Zane was rolling his eyes but smiling, and Atticus was grinning. Alexis huffed, annoyed, and turned back around.

"Hello my lovely, class!" Crowler called in a sing-song voice. "Oh, and hello Slifer slackers. Today we will be focusing on the properties of trap cards." Chazz decided to tune him out. He knew all this stuff already. They all knew Crowler was just a hoax. He couldn't duel for his life. No wonder he was obsessed with Obelisks. Actually, he seemed the most fanatic about Slifers, especially Jaden. Chazz smirked. Love-hate relationship? Pedophilia? Maybe Chazz should start sitting toward the back of the room…

"**Hey boss!"** Chazz glanced down at his duel deck and sure enough, a yellow head was poking out of it. **"This is such a boring lesson, isn't it?" **Jaden glanced over his shoulder, smiling evilly at Chazz's discomfort. Everyone else remained unaffected. The ebony-haired boy casually placed his hand over his duel deck, pushing the spirit back into it's card, ignoring it's yelps of protest. Suddenly he noticed Jaden had passed him a note. He opened it.

_Having trouble?_ He stared at the words and rolled his eyes, scrawling back a reply. He casually dropped it on the brunette's desk.

_Shut up Slacker. Shouldn't you be asleep or something? (And you wonder why I call you slacker)_ Annoyingly, Jaden was very quick with his reply.

_Alexis won't let me. She says it's for my own good to pay attention, I might just learn something._ Chazz smirked smugly.

_She has you whipped. I bet you carry her books for her._

_So? Is that a bad thing? Why is Syrus staring at you anyway? _Chazz blinked, surprised, and glanced over at the bluenette. Indeed, the younger boy was watching Chazz out of the corner of his eye. A small smile flashed for a second over the pale boys face as their eyes met, and then he quickly disguised it and composed his reply.

_Probably watching a real duelist is refreshing for him. I mean, until very recently, he only got to see you and Chumley, except for classes and all. _Chazz grinned, that was sure to get a rise out of Jaden. Baiting his ex-nemesis was always fun. Surprisingly, the next note was not from Jaden. Chazz recognized the writing as Zane's neat cursive.

_Will you stop distracting Jaden? He's finally awake in class and you start passing notes. Maybe if you two would actually pay attention, you would be out of Slifer by now._ Chazz glared at Zane's back.

_Shut up, blue-head. In case you haven't gotten the news, since I left, Obelisk is obsolete. It's just not the same without Chazz Princeton. Got that?_ _I might be a Slifer Slacker, but you're a Obsessive Obelisk. Hah. _Zane's reply was quick.

_That's lovely. Do Ra's have names? Atticus wants to know._ Chazz smirked and quickly came up with a name for the yellow dorm.

_Raucous Ra's. If Atticus wants to know why that's their name, tell him to go by their dorms at night. That is, if you'll let him off your apron strings._ Chazz tapped his foot, but Zane didn't reply. How annoying. Chazz zoned out and started to doodle. He wasn't a good artist, but he was making an annoying picture of Zane to get back at him, so it didn't matter that he wasn't good. Suddneyl a shrill voice brought him out of his daydream world.

"Chazz Princeton! What is the effect of the trap card Draining Shield?" The black clad boy reflected idly that Crowler had a very annoying voice. He didn't look up while answering.

"It negates an attack and gives the trap user life points equal to the monster whose attack was blocked." He answered, bored.

"That is correct." Crowler said, before turning to roast another student who he thought wasn't paying attention.

"Well, duh." Chazz muttered under his breath. He finished his drawing and slipped it into his pocket. Now all he needed was some tape and he could stick it to the top duelists back. Somehow, it would be a lot harder to take the Obelisk seriously when on his back there was an interesting portrait of him. Interesting in the sense that Zane's face was upside down and he was fat, with horns. Petty, but Chazz wasn't in the mood to think up a truly devious plot. He noticed yet another note was on his desk. This time it was from Syrus, who was now staring resolutely at the front of the room.

_Nice drawing. Can I talk to later? Without Jaden and the others around, that is?_ Chazz inwardly smiled, but kept his face blank as he wrote out his reply.

_I don't see why not. You can come to my room, I suppose. _Syrus flashed Chazz a quick smile, which made the taller boy's stomach do flip-flops. It wasn't fair that the bluenette could do that to him. He was Chazz Princeton, supposed to be able to stand up to everything, and just a quick smile could melt him inside. Wouldn't Jaden laugh if he knew that the boy who always had a clever comeback would do almost anything to get Sy to smile?

"Class dismissed." With a groan, Chazz got to his feet and stretched out his sore muscles. The others did the same and picked up their text books. Jaden instantly began to bounce around excitedly.

"Last class of the day, alright! Anyone up for a duel? Huh, huh? Chazz? Do you want to duel? You better get your game on!" Chazz pressed a hand to his temple and closed his eyes, counting silently to 10.

"No Jaden, I do not want to duel. I do not want to get my game on. Challenge you're girlfriend, okay?" He said, pushing the bouncing boy out of his face and toward Alexis. "Or Bastion. Even Zane, if you want your butt kicked, that is. Which would be amusing, to say the least." Chazz ran a hand through his hair. "I am going back to ym room. I do not want to be disturbed. You got that, losers?"

"Ok Chazz. Sorry. Alexis, do you want to duel? Please?" Jaden made puppy eyes at his girlfriend, who laughed and nodded.

"Sure. What are the rest of you going to do?" Chazz smiled. So many possible answers to that comment ran through his head, not one of them appropriate. He wisely kept his mouth shut.

"I'm probably going to go back to the dorms to work on my deck. Atticus, do you want to come?" Zane asked. Atticus nodded and Chazz softly chuckled. _Work on his deck, my ass. He'll be working on something else, I believe._

"I'm going to go and get started on our homework." Bastion said in his loftiest voice. The others rolled their eyes. Chumley shrugged.

"I'm going to see if anyone has any grilled cheese left. Sy, do you want to come?" Chazz narrowed his eyes slightly. _I sure hope that doesn't have any other meanings. Chumley's pretty big, the only way I could kick his ass is in a duel._

"Nah, not today." Syrus piped up. "I'm probably going to go and, um, read a book." Chazz winced slightly. Of course, he had to pick a horrible liar. Lovely. Just lovely. Even worse, Zane was watching them with narrowed eyes.

"Cool Syrus. Reading's pretty sweet, I guess. Come on Alexis!" Jaden grabbed his girlfriends arm and dragged her away. The others all wandered off as well. Chazz began to stride off toward Slifer dorms, with Syrus following him.

Once they reached the dorms, Chazz quickly shut the door after Syrus, who looked hesitantly around and sat down on the bed. The owner of the room leaned against the wall, watching Syrus carefully.

"Why did you…you know…kiss me earlier?" The boy's voice squeaked a little at the end, cracking with nervousness. Chazz smiled, but his heart was thumping wildly in his chest with nervousness. He shrugged.

"Because I wanted to." The black haired boy walked over to Syrus and tilted the boys head up so that their eyes met. "I really like you Syrus. More than as a friend." He swallowed nervously. Showing this much true emotion, positive emotion, for someone else was hard for Chazz. "And kissing you seemed like a good way to let you know."

"Well…I…I feel the same way." Syrus stammered, eyes shining. Chazz grinned softly, one of the few times when he gave a true smile, and pressed his lips against the other's boys again. He circled his right hand around to the back of his crushes head and twined his finger around delicate blue strands of hair. With his left hand, he pulled the slightly younger boy up against him. He was aware that Syrus was also holding them together.

Eventually, the need for oxygen overcame their long suppressed passion and they broke off their kiss. Syrus's head drifted down to lean on Chazz's shoulder. The taller boy rested his chin on the crown of Sy's head, absentmindedly stroking his hair. He noticed the three Ojama's were staring at them with their mouths open in shock. He glared and, for once, they disappeared.

"Chazz? Maybe…Maybe we should keep this secret for a little while. I'm…not exactly sure how people would react." Syrus said in a worried tone. Chazz nodded slightly.

"Not to mention that if the seventh Shadow Rider figured out that they could get to me through you…that would be bad." It was a big understatement. Syrus had almost lost his soul once, and that was one time too many, in Chazz's mind.

"That, too." Chazz heard fear in the younger boy's voice. Poor Syrus. Though the two boys were both fifteen, Syrus seemed a lot younger, more in need of protection.

"Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you." Chazz promised. The boys smiled at each other, and unanimously decided to continue their impromptu make-out session.

-2-

Writing fluff is waaaay harder than it looks. I killed it. –runs sobbing into room-


	3. Panic and Portraits

**Warnings: **Yaoi, use of English names(never seen the Japanese version), OOCness, umm…suggestive–ness of activities that might have occurred…I mean, it's left up to you to decide what they were doing.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own yu-Gi-Oh! GX. I do, however, own a obsession with Chazz.

**Summary: **Zane gets an urgent call for help and a dangerous search mission is started. YAY THE REAL PLOT STARTS IN THIS CHAPPY!

**Announcements:** I still have a beta/editor position open. Also, poll going on for me now. Should I pair Bastion with an OC, Mindy, Jasmine, Tanya, or other? There will be an interesting twist to the relationship, though…and if you guess what it is, there will be a prize.

Thank you everyone who reviewed! Special thanks to **high-off-life**, who put this on her favs, and to both **Battygirl** and **ckrbrt** who put this on their fav list and alert lists! To **PowHammer**, who suggested Sy getting kidnapped: well, that comes later. –cackles evilly-

-3-

Zane woke up with a jolt and wondered for a second, dazed, what had so rudely disturbed him. A few moments of meditation brought on the realization that he'd been kicked awake. Indeed, on closer inspection he realized he had a pain in his shin. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, waking himself up to the point of being able to think more clearly. He clicked on a lamp and then glanced over at his bedmate.

Atticus was shivering, having kicked the covers off. His dark brown hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat, and he was breathing in soft gasps. His usually jovial and joking face was twisted with fear and pain. Handsome features were harsh in the lamplight. Zane bit his lip slightly, worried. These nightmares had followed Atticus ever since he'd left the hospital.

The stoic Obelisk reached over to shake his lover's shoulder gently. Nobody had questioned the former Shadow Rider moving into Zane's room after regaining his memory, but if they had, Zane could have blamed it on the other boy's nightmares. Every other night, it seemed, he was plagued by demons of his time as Night Shroud. If he wasn't woken, he usually ended up falling out of the bed or hitting his head. He needed a roommate for safety reasons alone. Of course, normal roommates slept in different beds, but that was just a small thing of no consequence to anyone but Zane, Atticus, and a handful of heartbroken fan girls.

"Atticus, Atticus, wake up. Please wake up now, baby, please." Zane softly crooned. Many would be shocked to hear the gentle emotion expressed in his face and manner. Zane never opened up to anyone in public, not even his little brother. Only Atticus and sometimes Alexis would get to see him showing what he felt was weakness.

"Wha-Oh. Zane. Did I wake you?" The brunette smiled sheepishly, instantly apologetic. Zane shook his head slightly, reaching out a hand to brush a bit of hair out of the newly woken boy's eyes.

"Don't worry about it. Better than you knocking your head off. You okay?" Atticus was about to reply when suddenly he gasped and pointed. Zane turned to look out the window that he had opened that night for the cool breeze. He, too, sucked in his breath. The moon was covered in darkness, shadowy clouds covering the horizon. Earlier that night, the sky had been clear.

"It's another Shadow Rider attack." Zane finally said, breaking the silence. Atticus only nodded, looking worried. "Don't worry, Alexis, Jaden, and Chazz can handle themselves." Zane hoped his tone was reassuring enough. "They've all been through this before." Atticus opened his mouth to reply.

It was at that exact moment that Zane's PDA began to vibrate. The Obelisk had absentmindedly tossed it into a small drawer, and it was now rattling around, shaking the entire chest. This caused quite a racket and both boys jumped. Zane recovered first and grabbed it, flicking it on. Syrus's worried face filled up the screen.

"Zane! Zane! It's horrible!" He was shouting. "Alexis is in the forest, Jaden ran away and Chazz is swearing!" Zane blinked at this confusing array of messages.

"Give me that damn thing!" A muffled voice grumbled and his brother's face was replaced. Chazz glared at Zane. "What the Slacker is trying to say is this: the forest got all Shadowed an hour or so ago and then Jaden came running into our rooms. Turns out Romeo was going to meet his damn girlfriend in the forest but she's disappeared. So, he runs out and we just got to the woods and he's not here. He's not answering and we think it's a damn good idea not to wander in ourselves if two of the people with keys, three if you include Banner, are missing. Now get your goddamn asses over here!" The line was abruptly cut, but not before Zane heard a muffled protest from Syrus about language.

Atticus and Zane traded looks, one horrified, one looking slightly shocked. Instantly, the two boys got out of bed and grabbed their clothes, hurriedly dressing. Zane then grabbed his deck. Maybe he didn't have a spirit key any longer, but if it wasn't a Shadow Rider and they were wrong, it could come in handy. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Atticus doing the same. The two then quickly and quietly left the room.

In a few agonizing minutes, they had reached the forest. Syrus was bouncing worriedly on his toes, Chazz was leaning against a tree, a grouchy don't-f-with-me expression on, and Bastion was trying to engage in conversation with an overtired Chumley.

"Is Crowler coming?" Zane asked. Obviously, someone needed to be calm and rational about this, and even more obvious was the fact that nobody else looked up to the task. Chazz snorted and shook his head.

"What good would he do?" The boy grumbled. "Other than tremble and say 'Oh, my' of course. Now let's go." The others didn't try to refute Chazz's logic, but Zane stopped the boy from heading off by putting up his hand.

"Wait. We should go in two groups, one looking for Jaden, one for Alexis. Chazz, you can lead one group, I'll lead the other." Zane ordered. Chazz narrowed his eyes but nodded. The Obelisk was relieved. He knew for a fact that the demoted student could be troublesome and if he wanted to lead and Zane didn't let him, it would be difficult to say the least.

"Okay. Syrus, Bastion, you two are less annoying then the rest. Follow me. Oh yeah, and suppose we can look for Jaden." At least he had tact enough to realize that Atticus would want to search for his sister…but when had Zane's brother gone from 'slacker-not-worthy-of-attention' to 'less-annoying-than-the-rest'? Something weird was definitely going on.

"I guess that leaves you two with me." Zane said, voice emotionless as he glanced at Chumley and Atticus. The Slifer threw up his hands, shaking his head.

"Oh no. Not me. I'm not going in there." He said. "I'm going to go tell Chancellor Sheppard what's going on, and maybe ask if any of the Obelisk girls have seen Alexis. I'll…umm…call you with news." With that, the fat boy hurried off. Zane watched him go, and then turned to Atticus.

"Don't worry. We'll find you're sister. She'll be fine." He said, resting his hand on the other boys shoulder. Atticus glanced up with a fake smile.

"Yeah, okay. Come on."

3

"-And when we were little, Alexis always slept with her cards under her pillow and when she was at a sleep over with a friend she forgot to bring them and made Mom bring them out so she could put them under her pillow." Zane sighed as he listened to Atticus's ramblings. He loved his boyfriend, no mistake about that, but he did not realize that a search meant having to listen to his ramblings. Tuning the other boy out, he listened for any other sounds not native to the forest. Suddenly he heard something. "And when she was seven she wanted to be Cyber Tutu and tried to teach herself ballet and-"

"Shh. Listen." Zane commanded, cutting the other boy off midway through memory lane. Atticus was instantly all ears. Zane was sure now; a soft sound was coming from their right. It sounded like a voice, calling something. It was a male voice. As the two boys hurried closer, it became clear that it was Jaden.

"Alexis? Alexis…Alexis?" Zane and Atticus stepped through the last of the trees and found Jaden, looking bewildered a little worse for wear. It was obvious that he had struggle through the underbrush with no thought to his clothes or body. He had a slight rip in his jacket and a cut on his cheek.

"Jaden?" Atticus asked, disappointment in his voice. Jaden looked at them wildly, worry in his eyes.

"Have either of you seen Alexis?" Jaden sounded worried. Zane and Atticus glanced at each other, wondering how to break it to him that they had absolutely no clue, when Zane's PDA went off again. He quickly answered. His little brother's face became visible once more.

"We found Alexis, only it's bad, and Chazz is dueling, but we can't see anything because his opponent played this card and, and it's all horrible!" Syrus looked as if he was on the verge of tears, a fact that would not surprise Zane. "Here, Bastion, you explain!" Syrus said, handing off the PDA once more.

"It's a Shadow Rider, of course." Bastion's cultured voice seemed oddly out of place in the rough habitat. "You all better start; I think we're about due east of you. I'll explain as you go. Have you got Jaden?" Zane nodded confirmation as he readied his group to head east. "Good."

"So what exactly is going on?" Zane asked, keeping on eye on the brush in front of him. Jaden tripped and almost fell, but Atticus pulled him back up. Zane ignored them.

"It appears that Alexis was found by the Shadow Rider. They dueled and she lost. Now Chazz is dueling, and he looked as if he was winning by a landslide, but then the Shadow Rider played a spell card, Privacy Charm. It sent all of Chazz's monsters in his hand to the grave yard, and brought back an equal number of the opponent's destroyed monsters back to his hand. It also had the side effect of closing the two off from us; we can't hear them, much less see them." Zane nodded grimly.

"We're on our way." He shut off the PDA and the group struggled on even faster.

-3-

It was just as Bastion had said. An orb of light hid the duelists from the rest of the woods. Bastion and Syrus stood outside it. Bastion looked calm, but Syrus was chewing his finger nails anxiously. He looked even more worried than when Alexis and Jaden had been AWOL. Zane again was struck by the sense that he was missing something.

"What happened to Alexis?" Atticus asked. Jaden nodded vigorously, united with the other boy in worry.

"Is she alright? Why isn't she with you?" Syrus chewed his lip nervously and exchanged a glance with Bastion.

"We don't know. We heard a scream that sounded like Alexis and then Chazz ran ahead. When we got here, she wasn't here, and Chazz was challenging the Shadow Rider to a duel. We only missed about fifteen seconds, thirty max, but she had just vanished." Bastion nodded in agreement.

"It is likely her soul as stolen." He said. "Hopefully Chazz will be able to get it back." Jaden balled his hands into fists.

"If he can't, I will." He said voice hard and brave. Zane blinked. He always forgot that under Jaden's joking and annoyingly optimistic exterior there was a backbone of steel. The brunette had fought in more Shadow Duels than any of them, and had become so much better at dueling that Zane was secretly worried about what would happen in their inevitable face off. Of course, if the Shadow Duelists had their way, that duel would never come.

Suddenly the building quivered and faded out. Chazz was kneeling on the ground, biting his lip to keep from screaming. Monsters faded from the scene, leaving the obviously beaten Chazz and a stooped figure in long robes, leaning on a gnarled stick. Chazz looked up and nodded quietly to the figure. The figure nodded back, and the boy slumped to the ground.

"Chazz!" Shouted Syrus. A cackle came from the throat of the figure. It turned toward the group. The white robes and hood hid its face, but yellow eyes shone out form under the hood. It held out a hand and shook a finger as if it was a mother scolding a misbehaving child.

"Tut, tut, you cannot save him now. He played his deck well, that one. A pity that I must now take his soul." Even the voice was creakingly twisted. The hand disappeared back into the folds of the robe and reappeared with a small necklace chain. Hanging from the chain was a pendant that looked like a blank canvas. As Chazz's body disappeared, his face appeared in the portrait. "Would you like to view my art?" A sudden tossing motion sent the picture necklace and another like it, with a blonde in it-Alexis, Zane realized- toward the group. Atticus reached out and caught them. He dropped the one with Chazz so that he could closely examine his sister for any injury. Syrus reached out and caught the male's picture before it hit the ground.

"Alexis! No! You have to give back their souls, now!' Jaden shouted angrily. The figure laughed.

"You are the last key-keeper. I will make you a deal. If you beat me in a duel, I will give back your little friend's souls. If I win, I get yours, and your key, of course."

"Deal! Now get ready to get your game on!" Shouted Jaden. The figure laughed and shook its finger again.

"Not quite yet. First things first. You like the blondie, didn't you? Well how do you like her…as an opponent?" Suddenly the figure warped and changed, melting into itself. Before their eyes, a new figure appeared…one they knew well. Zane heard Atticus suck in his breath. An exact replica of Alexis stood before Jaden, face twisted in a sneer that had never before been seen adorning the queen of obelisk's pretty face. The only difference between the replica and original is around the copies head was a golden circlet. Zane realized that was her Shadow Charm.

"Who…who are you?' Jaden asked, bewildered. The replica-Alexis laughed cruelly and did not answer. Atticus did instead.

"She's known as Copycat. She is one of the last of her people, the Shifters. They can change their form to match people they meet." The boy once known as Night Shroud sounded bitter and hateful, not a tone usually heard from the happy-go-lucky brother.

"Ah, you remember me. How flattering, and yet how very boring." Copycat examined her fingernails. She then turned to Jaden. "So, key-keeper, shall we duel?"

"You better believe we'll duel! Nobody steals my friend's souls and my girlfriend's body without getting beaten by me!" Jaden shouted. Two voices clamored together as they shouted one syllable.

"Duel!"

-3-

And that would be where we end for today...


	4. Heroes and History

**Warnings: **A really badly written duel. Please, constructive criticism on how to make it better is always appreciated! Also, Copycat really wants to win and uses an… err… _interesting_ method?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. I only own a purple lava lamp that is currently next to me, looking pretty.

**Summary: **Jaden duels Copycat, but can he keep his cool when she uses her powers to distract him? Just boring duel stuff, basically

**Announcements:** I still have a beta/editor position open. Bastion love interest poll still open. Current standings: OC-0, Mindy-0, Tanya-0, Jasmine-1, Other-1(Dimitri from King of Copy Cats).

Special thanks to-

1. marthgirls, Meow Mix Meow Mix A.K.A. BoomKat, and Sanely Insane for putting this on their alert list :)

2. Ronin32 for putting this on his/her fav list :)

3. I'malive for putting this on both lists:) :) :)

-4-

"Duel!" The two duel disks fired up and the players took their cards. (Copycat LP: 4000, Jaden LP: 4000) Copycat smirked and tossed Alexis's head. Jaden gritted his teeth. How dare she use the form of his Alexis! Alexis was everything this evil _thing_ was not-kind, pretty in her own right, good, the list was endless!

"I will go first." Copycat purred, drawing a card from her deck. "Perfect. I play The Sorcerer Merlin in attack mode!" (AP: 1200) The monster she summoned looked like her original form, except his cloak was midnight blue with mystical looking signs over it in white. "I place a face down and end my turn."

"Which begins mine!" Jaden pulled a card and glanced down. In his hand were two monsters, Burstinatrix and Avian. If he waited until he drew Polymerization, he could make Flame Wingman. For now, though, he'd just use Burstinatirx. "I summon Elemental Hero Burstinatrix!" He called (AP: 1200) "She's really going to fire up this duel. Attack that Sorcerer!"

"Not so fast! I activate my face down, Sorcerer's Kamikaze! This means that when my Merlin is destroyed, it sends all the monsters on the field to the grave yard with him!" Jaden gritted his teeth when his E-Hero exploded.

"Then I guess you give me no choice but to put down a face down and end my turn." Jaden said. _My face down is Negate Attack. If she summons a monster and attacks me, I can activate it._ He thought.

"Excellent. Now let us get this duel really going, shall we? I summon Sorcerer's Assistant!" A young boy with a too-big robe and a large hat appeared on the field. (AP: 600) "But don't get too used to him, for I will now sacrifice him to summon Morgan Le Fay! Rise, Morgan!" A regal looking woman replaced the boy. (AP: 1300). "Now, attack his life points directly! Shining Hex!" The monster pointed at Jaden and a stream of white light shot from her finger.

"Did you forget my face down? I activate Negate Attack! This stops your attack and ends your battle phase!" Copycat merely smirked and laughed.

"Not so, key-keeper. My card's special ability makes it so that one turn, she can bypass a spell or trap card and send it to the bottom of your deck. My attack stands!" Jaden felt the blast hitting him in the chest. He moaned in pain as his life points dropped. He hated Shadow Games! (LP: 4000-13002700)

"Don't worry Jaden, you can do this!" Jaden turned to the sound of Bastion's voice. Syrus offered him a grin.

"Come on Jay, you've gotten out of worse before!" Jaden smiled at his friend's support. He knew he was really lucky to have friends like them who'd always back him up and believe in him.

"Thanks guys! Now Copycat, it's my turn!" He drew and glanced down. "Sweet! I play Pot of Greed! This allows me to draw two more cards." Jaden glanced down and grinned. "And what cards they are! First, I play The Warrior Returning Alive! This allows me to take an Elemental Hero from my graveyard and add it to my hand! Now I play Polymerization to fuse together Elemental Heroes Avian and Burstinatrix to create Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!"(AP:2100)

"It appears you have me outmatched." Copycat observed. "And what a devastating Special Effect as well. It seems I must fall back on my Plan B." Jaden wondered what her Plan B was, but quickly found out. The copy of Alexis's skirt suddenly grew an inch shorter. Jaden had never seen that much of his girlfriend's thigh before. He blushed and averted his gaze.

"Hey! Put that back down!" He heard Atticus snarl. Syrus clapped a hand over his eyes while Atticus covered Zane's and Bastion hurriedly turned around. Atticus himself was determinedly staring over the top of the girls head.

"Why? It is much easier for me to win if my opponent is distracted." Copycat smiled. "But there is one slight problem…" Suddenly her top became painfully tight.

"Jaden! Attack her, win this thing and stop her!" Atticus commanded. "I will not have my little sister's body be used this way!"

"Oh really? Well you don't seem to be in a position to argue right now, Night Shroud." Copy Cat said, flicking hair over her shoulder.

"He's Atticus now, not Night Shroud. Flame Wingman, attack her Sorceress!" Jaden ordered. The Hero obeyed, destroying the weaker monster easily. "Now his special ability comes into play! You receive damage equal to your destroyed monster's attack points!" Copycat gritted her teeth as her life points fell, and then fell again. (LP: 4000-800-130001800) "Now I end my turn."

"Nice move." Copycat murmured seductively. Jaden noticed both her skirt and top had become even shorter and tighter. It really was distracting. "But now it's my draw." She swiped out a card and glanced at it. "And what a draw it is. You're fusion was pretty classy, I'll admit, but try this on for size. First, I use Call of the Haunted to bring back an old friend-Morgan le Fay, rejoin me on the battle field! But what is a sorceress without her book of spells? I play the equip spell Ancient Tome and equip it to my Morgan. Check it out, as you little girlfriend would say, she gains 400 attack points! But, like your girlfriend, it won't be around for long. Because, when I sacrifice it, it allows me to fuse together a monster on my field and a monster in my graveyard. I fuse together Morgan le Fay and Sorcerer of Merlin to create the one and only Nimue of Avalon!" A resplendent monster appeared; looking like a beautiful woman clothed in a blue dress and with hair made of water. (AP: 2200)

"I don't like the looks of this." Jaden heard Syrus say. Jaden nodded in slight agreement. He had heard of Arthurian decks, but never had seen one before. They were just as tough as he'd heard.

"Clearly she has done her history. Nimue was known as the Lady of the Lake and as one of the most elusive characters in the legends of Kind Arthur. Her card is just as rare. Indeed, it was speculated that the last one was lost. It appears that it was found." Bastion observed.

"And I think we're about to find out just what it does." Zane's muttered voice sounded as calm as always. That was oddly comforting to Jaden.

"Now, Nimue's special effect allows me to attack you directly. Are you ready for this? Nimue, attack him with Spirit of the Lake!" Nimue held out a hand and a blast of water slammed out form her palm, surrounding Jaden and inflicting a lot of damage. (LP: 2700-2200500) Copycat smirked. "I end my turn."

"Good enough for me! I activate Skyscraper. This Field Magic card gives any monsters with elemental hero in its name 1000 attack points!" Flame Wingman stood straighter. (AP: 2100+10003100) "Now he's stronger than your Nimue!"

"Go Jaden!" Syrus cheered. "Go get that Lake Lady!"

"Will do, Sy! Flame Wingman, attack her Nimue!" Jaden shouted. Flame Wingman blasted fire at the rare monster, which exploded. Suddenly, Flame Wingman and Skyscraper both disappeared. "Huh?"

"Silly child, when Nimue of Avalon is destroyed in battle, all other cards and monsters out are destroyed with her, which means I don't take any damage at all!" Copycat informed the boys. Jaden ground his teeth. He hated playing against cards he never seen before! It made it so much harder when he didn't know their effects.

"Well then, I suppose I'll just end my turn there."

"Good. I summon Sir Lancelot and put down two cards face down. You see, Lancelot can't attack on his first round out. Back to you." Copycat's clothes shrunk a little more, making Jaden fidget. (AP: 1900)

"Alright. I summon Elemental Hero Bubbleman in defense mode! Now, when Bubbleman is the only monster on my field, I get to draw two more cards. Alright! I play Fusion Gate! Now I can fuse monsters without Polymerization. Now I fuse together Bubbleman and Clayman to make Elemental hero Mudball Man!" (DP: 3000)

"I activate my facedown, Guinevere's Favor! With this trap card, when you summon a monster in defense mode and Sir Lancelot is on the field, Sir Lancelot can switch your monster from defense mode to attack mode and all I need to do is sacrifice one monster from my hand!"(Mudball Man AP: 1900)

"Ok then. I suppose that means I should just end my turn then, but not before I throw down two face downs."

"All the face downs are driving me insane." Jaden heard Syrus mutter to someone. Probably Bastion, he decided.

"That would be a good idea. I use my own face down, Round Table! If I give half my life points and let you draw one card, I am able to summon any monster I sacrificed. Sorcerers Assistant, welcome to the field!" (LP: 1800-900900)(AP: 600) "Now, Lancelot, attack Mudball Man!" The two clashed and, evenly matched, they both were destroyed. "And now, Assistant, finish him!"

"Not so fast! I play Emergency Provisions! By sacrificing one trap card on my field, I gain 1000 life points, and just in time, too." (LP: 500+1000-600900) Copycat bowed her head.

"You are a very skillful duelist." She purred. "Crushing you is a real pity, but ah well. I place a face down and end my turn."

"And now I'm going to end the duel." Jaden smiled slightly at the card he'd drawn. "I play Monster Reincarnation. By discarding one card from my hand, I can bring back one monster form my Cemetery to my hand. Now I bring back and summon Elemental Hero Burstinatrix. Burstinatrix, attack and destroy Sir Lancelot!"(AP: 1200)

"I play Magic Flute!" Shouted Copycat, her face down revealing itself. A small silver flute appeared in the Assistant's hands and he played it. The notes spun out and formed a blue barrier that Burstinatrix's attack could not break through. "Magic Flute protects my monsters for one turn."

"Then I simply place a face down end my turn."

"What does Jaden think he's doing? He's leaving himself wide open for that Assistant's attack, with just one facedown, one monster and no cards in his hand!" Atticus snapped, annoyed.

"He must have a plan." Zane said softly. Jaden heard them both clearly and grinned. _You better believe I have a plan!_ He thought triumphantly.

"Fine then. I play the spell card Mordred's Rebellion! When I make a monster with less than 1000 attack points attack a monster with over 1000, it destroys the stronger monster! Sorcerer's Assistant, get that Burstinatrix!" Copycat called.

"I activate Mirror Force! This negates your attack and destroys your monster!" Jaden shouted. The Assistant exploded.

"Well played, key-keeper. I end my turn here." Jaden realized with a jolt that she had no more cards to place as face downs or to summon.

"Burstinatrix, end this duel and get Chazz and Alexis back! Attack!" Copycat dropped to her knees as her life points reached zero.

"That's game."


	5. Warnings and Worries

**Warnings: **Boring, confusing stuff and then some action later to try to make up for the non-romance action in the past few chapters. Someone asked me for AlexisJaden fluff earlier, and it's not exactly fluff, but its close enough

**Disclaimer: **Contrary to popular belief, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. That was just a cruel rumor. –runs crying into room- -comes back so she can write the story-

**Summary: **The Shadow Riders reveal new information and their true(?) motive, and Jaden shows Alexis just how worried he was about her. (Told from Alexis's perspective)

**Announcements:** Bastion love interest poll still open. Current standings: OC-0, Mindy-0, Tanya-0, Jasmine-1, Other-1(Dimitri). Oh yes, and for the OC, it would either be Copycat or a girl named Emily Johnson, in obelisk, who have light brown hair and brown eyes.

Special thanks to- nobody has added me to fav/alert list since last chapter, but thanks to all my loyal reviewers! I love you all!

-5-

Alexis's world suddenly inverted and flipped inside out, spinning her around dizzyingly. Strong arms steadied her and she waited until her vision returned to normal. With a nod of thanks, she stepped out of her brother's hold and glanced around. Everything was a lot bigger now, thank goodness.

She saw a red blur and a second later, she was tackled by Jaden. Alexis staggered backward a step, pushed by the weight of his extreme hug. She wrapped her arms around him and let herself sag against her savior slightly. She soon became aware of two facts. The first of these facts was that Chazz was letting out a stream of swears to her right which caused Syrus to turn red. Or maybe Syrus was blushing because, as Alexis noted with interest, Chazz had yet to let go of the fellow student's hand. The second thing she noticed was that nearby, on her knees, was Copycat, still in the other girl's form. Alexis shook Jaden off and marched over.

"You! Stop using my body!" She snapped. Copycat glanced up and smirked. She warped and her image seemed to slide inward and outward at the same time, twisting until she had changed to look like a teenage girl in white robes with mousey brown hair and yellow eyes.

"Calm down. I like my natural form better anyway." Copycat sneered. She held out her free hand, the one that wasn't clutched around a weathered staff. "Here is your boyfriend's prize." She said, holding out the circlet. Alexis took it and glanced over Copycat with surprise. This hardly seemed like the same girl.

"Why are you being so nice?" Alexis asked suspiciously. Copycat sighed and shook her head.

"You'll see as soon as the others get here." She said cryptically. Then she lifted her head as if hearing something. "And here they come." Suddenly the shadows, which had disappeared when Jaden won the duel, reappeared around them, blacking out their vision for a few moments, when it returned, they gasped in shock.

Dr Crowler was suddenly there next to them, looking very alarmed. In a line before the former key-keepers, Atticus, and Syrus were the six Shadow Riders and two other men. One was unknown, shrouded in a dark cloak that hid his face. The other was Professor Banner.

"Ahh!" Crowler screamed. "I'm hallucinating! It's the Shadow Riders! Help me!" Syrus was staring wide eyed at Camulla, hiding behind Chazz. Alexis balled her hands into fists and stepped forward, ready.

"What's going on? Why are you all here? One of you is supposed to be dead, one of you is supposed to have lost her soul, one's should be a tiger, and so on!" Bastion argued. Tanya winked suggestively at him.

"Surprised to see me, big boy?" She murmured in a throaty voice. Bastion glared at her. Alexis noticed Copycat and Camulla exchanged annoyed glances.

"If you please, perhaps I can explain." Banner said nervously. The Shadow Lord nodded slightly. "You see, my students, this was a complex set of tests that you have been put through."

"What?!" Chazz shouted, summing up what all of them felt. "Tests? What the hell? What exactly is going on?"

"Hard times are coming to the world of Duel Monsters." The Shadow Lord's voice was low and powerful. "Changes are appearing in the world. The winds of change are blowing, a devil's wind. Here in the Academy you are sheltered. You needed to be taught lessons. Each duel you fought in was specifically engineered to teach you certain lessons you will need. All of you, and your trusted friends, must fight in the oncoming battle."

"What upcoming battle?" Jaden asked. "What lessons?" Alexis saw his forehead was rumpled in confusing. This would have been cute if she wasn't so freaked out and pissed off at the turn of events.

Suddenly, there was a blast of wind.. Alexis turned and then gasped when she Atticus. Over his face was a translucent copy of the mask he had worn as a Shadow Rider! He smirked and stepped forward into the line.

"Atty?" Alexis asked, voice smaller than she would have liked. What was going on? _Why is he wwearing that mask? What's happening to my brother?_

"What he says is true. I, Night Shroud, taught two lessons. One, you can find allies in the most unexpected places, and two, you cannot control time. Then it was Camulla's turn." Camulla stepped forward.

"First of all, I neglected to mention zat Illusion Gate only requires one to give one's soul for a day. Little Syrus was never in any serious trouble." Alexis glanced over at the smaller bluenette and noticed he looked relieved and confused. "But more on zat later. Ze first lesson I gave I taught to ze teacher, Crowler. I showed him zat no matter how much he is afraid, in ze end; he has some courage inside him and wishes to protect his students. By not backing down and letting darling Zane take me on instead when I repeatedly offered, he proved himself worthy."

"Really? Well, my, of course. I mean, I always place my students first." Dr. Crowler fanned himself with his hand.

"Indeed. And zen I got to darling Zane. For him I had a most interesting lesson. I had to teach Zane zat personal glory at ze expense of his loved ones was wrong and zat in the end, he loved his little Syrus and would give up himself to save him." Zane blinked, obviously taking this in. "Zen I taught Jaden zat in ze end, dirty tricks will eventually fail. Zat was it for me."

"Then it was my turn, and what a turn it was." Tanya smiled, thrusting out her chest. _Slut._ Alexis thought, making sure that Jaden was looking at the Amazon's face and not her larger attributes. "First of all I taught Bastion that denying something, like the ability to be distracted, wouldn't make it go away. Then I taught all of you that love can make people do crazy things, like try to give up dueling."

"And then it was my turn at the plate." Don Zaloog's annoying pattern of speech grated on Alexis's nerves. "I was to show that even people in positions of power can't always be trusted to do what it right. That was all."

"And then I taught you all that not all stories are true." Abidos the 3rd said proudly. "Though I am a bit better at dueling than I appeared. Really. I am. It's true." _Suuuure_ Alexis thought.

"And then I taught you that even when the odds are stacked against you and everything seems to be shrouded in darkness, you cannot give up because the reasons why you duel, even though you cannot depend on them to win the duel for you, must always give you strength to push on." Titan said. "Which leaves only Copycat."

"When I dueled Alexis I used the guise of Yugi Moto to show that a copy is never as good as an original. For Chazz I used the guise of a mother who needed the soul to save her sick daughter to show that sometimes you do right by doing wrong, like giving up the duel. For Jaden I distracted him by using Alexis's body to show that some people will stoop to any means to win."

"Those are your lessons. Remember them well, young warriors. You will need everything you know to survive in the battles to come. And now, to fulfill my end of the bargain-Atticus, you already got what you wanted. Camulla, choose your five vampires to start your new colony. Tanya, your tiger friend will also be granted full human form along with you. Don Zaloog, you told me you just wanted to have a good duelist using you and your group. Chazz is a good duelist. Abidos, your sister will be returned to heaven with you. Titan, you will get you're money and cards. Copycat, here is a charm that will put you in touch with the Spirits of Avalon to complete your training." _Those must be all the things he promised them so that they would work for him._ "Banner, it is time for us to return home." There was another flash of darkness and when it cleared, all the Shadow Riders were gone, except Atticus.

The older Obelisk swayed, the mask disappearing. Zane jumped forward to steady him before he fell.

"Huh? What happened?" Atticus asked, eyes wide and confused.

-5-

"I just don't get it. What did they mean by battle?" Jaden said aloud. Chazz sighed and hit the shorter boy over the head.

"Shut up slacker, it's way too late to be thinking about it now. We'll all wake up tomorrow and it'll make sense." He snapped, sounding incredibly cranky.

"I agree with Chazz." Zane said quietly. "We should all get a good night's sleep and regroup later." Everyone nodded and began to go their separate ways. Zane and Atticus walked off together toward the Obelisk boy's dorms, Bastion toward Ra Yellow. Alexis lingered with the Slifers and Crowler.

"Oh yes, and I suppose I ought to tell you two, your roommate Chumley sprained his ankle running toward the Chancellor's office earlier and will be sleeping in the infirmary." Dr Crowler said before he too turned and walked away.

"Okay. Well, bye Alexis." Jaden said. Alexis gave a tired little wave and watched the three walk away together for a few steps. Then she realized something and ran to catch up with them, grabbing Jaden's hand.

"Listen, Jaden, will you come back to my dorm with me? Mindy and Jasmine are staying over at Andrea's dorm and I'd kind of rather not be alone after everything tonight." Jaden smiled at her.

"Sure, Lex. Sorry Sy, looks like you'll be alone in the room tonight" Jaden said offhandedly. "Unless you can convince Chazz to share, which I doubt." He laughed at his own joke and Alexis smiled as well, noticing even in the dim light from the moon that Syrus's face suddenly changed color and Chazz was smirking. _Somehow,_ She thought. _I think that Syrus won't have to worry about being alone._

"Come on Jaden, let's go." She said to break the awkward silence. She literally dragged her boyfriend away, glancing over her shoulder at the other pair. _Aw, what a cute couple._ She thought. _And what bad secret keepers. I wonder if I'm the only one to figure it out and whether I should tell Zane. It is his brother after all…_

Alexis put a finger to her lips as they approached the girl's dorm. Jaden raised his eyebrows enquiringly. She leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"We have to be quiet or we'll wake up Ms. Fontaine, and she doesn't allow boys in here." She explained softly. He nodded. They carefully eased open the door and snuck through the halls until they reached her dorm, where he flopped down on her bed and she shut the door with a sigh.

"Obelisk dorms are so cool." Jaden gumbled while bouncing on the bed. "It's so big and stuff. No wonder Chazz misses it."

"Yeah, the dorms are pretty nice." Alexis said noncommittally, sitting down next to Jaden. Suddenly he stopped bouncing and grabbed her shoulders, staring searchingly into her eyes. She fidgeted uncomfortably. "What?" She finally asked.

"Oh Lex, I was so afraid I'd lost you…" He murmured sadly, eyes bright with unshed tears. Alexis felt her heart constrict painfully and opened her mouth to reply but before she could, Jaden had crushed his lips against her own. She deepened the kiss, shuddering with anticipation as his tongue fluttered across her bottom lip. His hands ghosted across her body as if checking for any injury, leaving her flushed with excitement. She slid her hands up his chest to the collar of his blazer, pulling the jacket off him. He was busy unbuttoning her uniform.

-5-

Alexis trailed her hand through her sleeping lover's messy hair. His arms instinctively tightened around her. She traced his strong jaw line, smiling as he subconsciously turned into the feathery embrace. With a serene look of content in her eyes, she intertwined her bare legs with his and lay her head back down on the pillow next to him.

"Don't worry Jaden, you won't ever lose me." She whispered so softly that she could barely hear it herself.

-5-

Sorry for cutting it off at the good part, but I want to keep it T, at least smut-wise. I might move it up to M so that Chazz can swear more. In addition, I am going to be leaving the States for vacation tomorrow, so unless I'm able to churn out another chapter in the next 16 hours or so, this will be the last chapter for a week or so. Sorry! Oh yeah, next chapter I will get back to our main couple, Chazz and Sy.


	6. Cold Showers and Confrontations

**Warnings: **Err…alludes to an erection? Zane is slightly protective of his little brother

**Disclaimer: **YES! I finally own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX! Waiiiit…hold on a second…THIS IS A **SOMBRERO**! Damn all the fast talking, lying shopkeepers! Damn them to hell and out the other side(Sorry, to get that, read me and Nina's one-shot Volatile Chemicals)

**Summary: **Chazz corrects a problem and has a chat with a certain bluenette(but not the one who gave him the problem)

**Announcements:** Three polls for you all (wow)

Bastion love interest poll-OC vsJasmine/Mandy vs Copycat

Should I move this up to an M and have more swears and maybe more smut-liek stuff(not tooo bad though becuase I can't do that well)?

IMPORTANT! What length do you want this to be? Around 12 chapters, with a more condensed, simple plot or an epic with a more long, twisty turny plot?

**Special thanks to**-

1. Taitofan for putting this on his/her alert list :)

2. sableye for putting this on his/her fav list :)

3. Saphireluva for putting this on both lists (Even though she doesn't usually like ChazzSy!) :) :) :)

**Other:** Did any of you see the episode Chazz-anova? Someone please explain something to me…when did they sack the real writers and get a crazed fangirl to start writing? I swear…I had to turn it off after the first few minutes because it was so annoying….the dialogue…the stupidity…"my true love, Alexis…." Ewww no. Just…no.

Though I must mention that after the whole Kagmaru thing, I noticed A LOT of chemistry between him and Bastion. Like, A LOT. Am I alone? (Nina just told me to shut up, Bastino+Chazz had chemistry forever and that I'm just blind)

Which brings me to this: my friend Nina's dad+stepmom are going on their honeymoon so for the next two weeks she's staying at my place, so updates will be slow. Me and Nina have decided to make this account a joint account, but I will still be writing this alone.

-6-

Chazz hurried toward the showers of Slifer, holding a towel. He had a half hour until dinner and wanted, well, needed, to take a shower beforehand. He had pulled Syrus aside and the two had made an entirely different and more literal meaning to the phrase 'tongue in cheek'. Then Syrus had to run off and hang out with Jaden, which left Chazz with a rather….interesting problem.

Chazz eased open the door to the bathhouse and quickly checked to see if anyone else was there. Good, he was alone. He shed his clothes and slipped into on of the stalls, hanging his towel over the door. Turning on the water full blast, he winced slightly as the cold shocked his skin into numbness as his body got used to the temperature.

Rubbing shampoo into black hair, the young Princeton's thoughts turned to the events of the last few days. After the duel with Copycat the group had made an unspoken agreement not to tell anyone else what had happened. They didn't know how they'd react. All they said was that Jaden had beaten the last Shadow Rider. Now he was practically a celebrity. It was slightly annoying for Chazz-he had forfeited, not lost, like Zane- but in the end he just ignored it. If Jaden wanted his five minutes of fame, that was up to him. Chazz wanted nothing of it. He was too worried about the other things they'd found out.

"_All of you, and your trusted friends, must fight in the oncoming battle." _The Shadow Lord's voice rang in Chazz's head. What kind of battle? A duel? They were prepared to duel, but it didn't seem like that. What had he said? _Hard times are coming to the world of Duel Monsters._ That seemed to rule out a duel, because if someone was against duel monsters, then they wouldn't have any themselves…but who would be against dueling? It was preposterous, madness, pure bull.

That Copycat chick was annoying as hell though, tricking him into losing when she wasn't even old enough to have a daughter, and putting him in an effing picture frame. The fact that later that evening Syrus had told him that he was the best looking painting that he'd ever seen was little solace.

Even worse, graduation was coming up. Soon Zane would be gone. Poor Atticus, having his ickle boyfriend leave him. Chazz sobered himself quickly, remembering that it was no laughing matter that Zane was leaving. It just didn't feel safe, having one of their little band gone right after they received that weird warning. Not to mention they all had to go home in the summer and, well, Chazz wasn't exactly sure where he was to go, what he was to do. He was disowned; none of his family would speak to him now. He'd probably have to board somewhere and get a job to pay for it. How shockingly banal it seemed.

With a sigh, he twisted the knob and the water ceased its flow. He stepped out and wrapped a towel around his thin frame. Like magic, his little problem had quickly disappeared. He dried himself off and got dressed, brushing out his hair so that it was down his back. He curled his lip in disgust as it quickly starting drying spiky again. No matter what he did, it just would not remain under his control, and he would not, repeat would _not_ resort to using some kind of gel and special conditioners like some girl.

It should be noted, however, that he wasn't too worried about that, as Syrus just so happened to like him with spiky hair. So don't go feeling sorry for him or anything. Despite all his moans and groans of complaint, if Syrus told him to cut his hair off he probably would do it. Just the thought of the annoying bluenette made Chazz grin nowadays. So it was that he left the bath house in a happy mood. One that fell off abruptly when he got the scare of his life.

"We need to talk." Chazz jumped in surprise and dropped his now wet towel. Soon it was dirty withgrit and mud, but he didn't notice because when Zane Truesdale is glaring at you as if you just told a two year old that Santa had died from substance abuse, you do not really notice that you're towel is muddy.

"Oh, hi Zane.. You, um, surprised me. What are you doing in slifer?" Chazz regained his composer and grinned cockily. "Coming to pay your little bro a visit? No, no, that can't be it; it's not your style."

"It's about Syrus." Zane said. Chazz secretly withered and his smile slipped a notch. _Oh shit. Oh shit._ Half his mind thought repeatedly. The rest of his mind was calmer. _Play it cool Chazz. You have no evidence he actually knows._

"Then why are you talking to The Chazz? Go talk to one of the midgets little cronies, Jaden and Chubby." Chazz sneered as he began to hurry by the other boy. Zane did not look amused. He reached out and gripped Chazz's arm. The Slifer winced as Zane applied pressure, seeming emotionless all the while.

"Are you screwing my brother?" Zane's voice was harsh and cold.

"No, I am not." That wasn't actually a lie. Syrus might be his boyfriend and they made out, but neither of them was ready to go any farther than that yet. Chazz reflected that if Zane killed him now, he'd never get to do it with Syrus, which was a huge shame.

"Don't lie to me Chazz. Alexis told me that you two were going out." Chazz's brow furrowed. What the hell? Alexis? Why did Alexis know? The only person they had told was Bastion, who Syrus claimed they had to tell because he knew Syrus liked Chazz anyway. Bastion wouldn't tell Alexis, would he?

"Do you believe everything you hear?" Chazz asked nervously, wishing that Zane would let him go so Chazz could disappear in mortification.

"No, but I'd noticed something was going on as well. Alexis just happened to put it all together before me." So Bastion hadn't told. That was a minor relief.

"Well, if this is the way you are going to treat all the people your little brother goes out with than I can see why he was so nervous about telling you." Chazz spat.

"So you admit it." Zane would have been smirking if Zane ever smiled in any way, shape, or form.

"I thought you said you already knew. What the hell is going on?" Chazz asked, bewildered.

"I wasn't completely sure." Chazz groaned. He had walked into that. Zane continued talking. "Now I have nothing against you going out with my little brother but there is something you need to get straight."

"Protective aren't we? How out of character of you, Zane. You had always struck me as a 'Screw him, I don't give a shit' kind of guy." Chazz taunted. Zane shook him by the arm like a misbehaving puppy.

"There is really only thing I want to tell you," Zane continued as if Chazz had ever spoken. "Which is this: If you ever hurt him, I will make sure that you die an incredibly painful way that involves your deck being shoved up your ass. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal." Chazz squeaked. Zane let go of his arm and the dark haired boy rubbed it, glaring up at the taller boy. "You know, Atticus just gave Jaden a high five. Why couldn't you be more like him?"

"Because I'm not Atticus."

"No, because you can't sleep with yourself." Chazz mumbled. Zane just walked away. "Goodbye to you, too, Zane! Nice to see you as well!" He shouted sarcastically.

"Hiya Chazz! Why are you yelling at nothing?" Chazz pressed two fingers to each of his temples and rubbed them, trying to get rid of his oncoming headache.

"Because, Yuki, I feel like it. So go away!" He shouted, turning around. Jaden laughed at him, which only infuriated the former Obelisk more.

"Short temper much, Chazz?" Jaden chortled. Chazz growled, pissed as hell. "Woah, calm down. Who were you talking to anyway?"

"Nobody. Where's Syrus?" Chazz changed the subject.

"Probably at the school meeting that Chancellor Sheppard called. I came to get you." Chazz groaned and grabbed Jaden's arm, towing the other boy behind him.

-6-

Chazz slipped into the seat next to Syrus. Everyone was talking excitedly, wondering what was going on. Chazz bent his head closer to Syrus so that he could inconspicuously whisper in his boyfriend's ear.

"Zane knows about us."

"WHAT!" Everyone in the near vicinity turned to stare at Syrus's sudden outburst. Chazz glared and Syrus quickly stammered out, "You mean you found my drawing of Dark Magician Girl and you never told me?" Everyone laughed at him and turned back to other conversations.

"Calm down!" Chazz hissed nervously in Syrus's ear. "People are starting to figure it out enough already. Alexis realized and told Zane!"

"Calm down? You're telling me to calm down? I really, really didn't want Zane to know I was going out with _you_!" Chazz felt that was highly uncalled for and bridled.

"I'm sorry; I didn't know that going out with someone like me was such an embarrassing thing!" He spat and turned away, hurt.

"No, that wasn't what I meant, Chazz! Let me explain!" Syrus gasped. The other boy just glared at him.

"Shut up, _Slacker_, I am trying to listen to Chancellor Sheppard." The Chancellor had taken the stage and was clearing his throat into the microphone in a disgustingly phlegm-y sound that Chazz wished he could record and send to his brothers. Chazz pretended to be on the edge of his seat, waiting to hear whatever nonsense Sheppard was going to throw at them, ignoring Syrus's woeful face.

"Children! I have some very important news!" Everyone settled down and listened. "I know that it is very odd for this to occur so late in the year but, well, we are soon going to get a lot more students and some new teachers." Everyone murmured excitedly.

_New students three weeks before we graduate? What the hell?_ Chazz thought. He glanced around to find his frie- um, his acquaintances for their reactions. Bastion looked skeptical, Jaden confused, Alexis was frowning, Atticus and Zane were trading looks of puzzlement and Syrus was looking adorably clueless.

"Uh yes, I know this rather confusing for all of you. Please settle down. You all have seen most of these students before and I am expecting you will to be very helpful to them. You see…

"North Academy has been shut down."

-6-

Rose: YAY! The next part of the plot unfolds! YAYNESS! Oh yeah and if any of you know the names of the four kids for North Academy that Chazz dueled at once, please tell them to me. PLEASE! If not I will make up names.

Nina: Okay fine, it's a good story. It still is a chapter story though. One-shots are still supreme

Rose: Suuuuuure Nina. Go on telling yourself that.


	7. Suprises and Sulkers

**Warnings: **Yaoi, kissing, implications that Yugi is gay (you know it's true!) Kissing, Chazz gossips at Syrus(gasp)

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. I do own Chazz Princeton, however.

Chazz: YOU DO NOT!

Rose: -knocks Chazz out and hides him- that was a hallucination!

**Summary: **Even with more info on North Academy's sudden closing, Chazz still acts mad at Syrus. The bluenette goes to apologize, but keeps on being interrupted by the most annoying people.

**Announcements:** Three polls for you all, still

Bastion love interest poll-OC vs Jasmine/Mandy vs Copycat(Remember that OC) vs a North Academy Boy

Should I move this up to an M and have more swears?

IMPORTANT! What length do you want this to be? Around 12 chapters, with a more condensed, simple plot or an epic with a more long twisty turny plot?

**Other: **I have decided to do review replies down at the bottom, squee, yes? Anyway, PLEASE PLEASE VOTE IN THE POLLS! I have, like, one vote for two of the polls and none for the other. Because I think a lot of you skip the author stuff up here (gasp) I am going to stick this in the middle of the story so you HAVE to read it. Cruel, non? WELL THAT'S WHAT YOU GET BWAHAHAHAHA…..errrr….righto then.

Also, I am SOOOO sorry for the long wait. This happened for three reasons. The first is that I kept on trying to put Zane in this chapter and it just kind of died every time. Finally, I gave in and took him out. The other reason is that I've been working on all these other projects. I started a Teen Titans story, two more one shots for GX (A ChazzZane and an AlexisZane, as I've become mildly obsessed with Zane, since I couldn't get him in here.) Not to mention two Harry Potter oneshots (A dracoharry and a SiriusSeverus that shows potential to become longer) not to mention Nina really wants me to type up her Teen Titan crack pairing story(which I swear i'm gonan do soon Nina!), so I've been way busy. Then ffn wouldn't let me upload! GRRR!

-7-

"North Academy has been shut down." Chancellor Sheppard held up a hand to shush the murmurs running through the crowd of students. When they quieted, he continued. "Until they, ahem, are able to get a new permit to open a new facility, they will be staying with us. They will share classes with you and each North Academy student will get a 'host' that will show them around and help them adjust. If you are interested in becoming a host, there will be a sign-up sheet posted later."

"Are you going to be a host? It might be fun." Syrus leaned over to whisper in his boyfriend's ear. Chazz turned his head and gave him a 'what-the-fuck-are-you-doing-talking-to-me' look, gave a disdainful sniff and turned away. Oh, right, Chazz was mad at him. You'd think such shocking news would distract him from that, but nope. Syrus slumped down in his seat.

"Why were they shut down?" Chazz called out, voice ringing around the stadium. Chancellor Sheppard looked up at him and nodded slightly.

"Ah yes, Mr. Princeton, I figured you might be affected more than most by this news, as you spent three months with them and most likely made friends there." Chazz looked offended at the suggestion that he had friends anywhere, which Syrus would have found adorably cute in any other circumstance but right now as too busy being sad and shocked to concentrate on it.

"As to your question, it's rather complicated, but basically they failed to meet some regulations for a duel school." Chancellor Sheppard answered. Syrus felt a gaze on his back and turned to lock eyes with Jaden. He raised an eyebrow- a habit he'd picked up form Chazz- and Jaden mouthed something at him.

"_Bastion thinks this might have to do with the Shadow Rider thing._" Syrus read Jaden's lips and his eyes widened. Was it possible? Could this be the danger?

"_But how is this a danger? It's unfortunate, but not a danger._" Syrus mouthed back. Jaden shrugged and pointed to Bastion, who wasn't paying attention. Syrus sighed and turned back around. They'd have to discuss this later- preferably when Chazz was talking to him again.

"You may all go back to your dorms. The new students will arrive in a few days." Sheppard released them. Chazz brushed by and out the door while Syrus was stuck in the crowd. That was okay, though, Syrus was pretty sure he knew where to find his boyfriend. He hurried down toward the lighthouse.

-7-

(A/N: VOTE IN THE GODDAMN POLLS!

1. Bastion love interest poll-OC vs Jasmine/Mandy vs Copycat vs rabdom Norht Academy Boy

2. Should I move this up to an M and have more swears? ( and maybe mini-smut)

3. IMPORTANT! What length do you want this to be? Around 12 chapters, with a more condensed, simple plot or an epic with a more long twisty turny plot?)

-7-

Chazz was standing facing out toward sea, wind playing havoc with his hair. Syrus took the moment to glance over his lover and think he was really, really lucky. He knew Chazz didn't agree, but Syrus knew that in usual terms the other boy would be way out of his league.

"Chazz…hey." He called softly. Chazz turned around with a glare and raised his eyebrow.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not talking to you." He said coldly. Syrus blinked back small tears. Why did Chazz have to get so _mean_ when he was angry and hurt?

"I…I know. But I really didn't mean it like that. I would never really want to hurt you like that, Chazz!" He said, eyes shining with heartfelt tears. "I'm sorry. P-please don't be mad at me anymore?" A tear spilled out of his eye and traced its way down his cheek. Chazz walked forward and carefully wiped the tear away.

"It still was really bad phrasing." He grumbled, but no longer was glaring. Syrus gave a wet little laugh.

"I know. But you know I would never say it like that if I'd thought about it for a second. Chazz, I…I love you!" Syrus finally burst out and glanced apprehensively at Chazz, who was blushing and smirking at the same time.

"I know you do, I just wanted to make sure you knew it, too." Chazz's voice was a rumble in his ear and then the taller boy's mouth had captured his own and Syrus let his eyes drift closed blissfully. Warm arms encircled him, pulling him up against his fellow Slifer. He wrapped his own arms around Chazz, pulling the raven-haired boy even closer. Finally, gasping, they parted and Chazz leaned his forehead against Syrus's and the two grinned at each other.

"That wasn't what you were supposed to say." Syrus finally giggled, rubbing their noses together whimsically. Chazz grinned at him.

"And now I'm going to make sure you know that I love you, too." Chazz added. Syrus wondered how exactly Chazz was planning to do this but soon was too busy kissing his boyfriend to think at all. Chazz's hand were sliding along his back and stroking his hair and he could feel both of them getting excited and kissing with more and more passion. Chazz tasted like the orange tic-tac he'd eaten earlier and Syrus couldn't get enough of it. He'd always thought he liked green tic-tacs best, but apparently, he'd been mistaken. He didn't know what he tasted like, but Chazz sure seemed to like it.

"Aw, aren't you two cute." The two boys jumped and reluctantly broke apart, flushed and messy haired. Alexis was standing with her hand on her hip and grinning. _Oh shoot!_ Syrus panicked and glanced over at Chazz, who was glaring daggers at Alexis.

"What do you want?" Syrus was surprised to hear so much venom in his lover's voice, even more than when he'd been annoyed at Sy. Alexis took a step backward at the glare being pinned at her.

"Chazz?" The two other chorused, Alexis confused, Syrus worried. Chazz turned and smiled at Syrus, taking the smaller boy's hand in his own. Syrus blinked, even more befuddled than ever.

"Maybe you don't know about this, Sy, but apparently it was lovely little Lexi who decided to stick her nose in where it didn't belong and tell Zane about us." Syrus felt his eyes open really wide. Alexis knew? Alexis had told Zane? That was…surprising, to say the least.

"Well, Syrus is his little brother. Zane has a right to know." Alexis argued defensively. Chazz grimaced at her and Syrus pulled his hand from Chazz's in order to cross his arms and scowl.

"Yeah, well you didn't have the right to tell him! I'm his brother; I should have been the one to tell him!" Syrus said angrily. Alexis's face fell and she opened her mouth, probably to apologize.

"Hey guys!" All three jumped and turned to see a certain brown haired Slifer who happened to be Alexis's boyfriend and quite possibly would be the first straight king of games. Syrus blushed. _Is the entire world deciding to come down and hang out at the lighthouse today?_

"The world hates me!" He heard Chazz groan and turned to see his boyfriend slide down the side of the lighthouse and put his head on his knees, his entire posture one of extreme desolation. The sight made Syrus burst out in a fit of giggles.

"Chazz…" He snickered. "You look so silly like that!" He finally managed, when the others looked at him oddly. He couldn't exactly describe why it was funny, but it was. It was just so Chazz-ish to act like that.

"Do you mind? I am trying to be depressed, not-" Here the boy grimaced. "Silly." This set Syrus off in another set of giggles. Chazz looked miffed. "You know, it's bad for my self-image when you laugh at everything I say." Syrus bit his lip and took several calming breaths.

"Sorry, Chazz." He finally said, then noticed Alexis and Jaden were trading looks. "I'm still annoyed at you though, Alexis!" Now it was Chazz's turn to laugh.

"Syrus, love, you are annoyed when Chumley steals your grilled cheese or when Jaden sleep-punches you while saying that he is Elemental Hero Avian. When someone runs around and tells your brother about your _secret_ relationship with an extremely hot and completely amazing and sexy boy you are down right pissed off." Syrus rolled his eyes and ignored him.

"Wait, wait, hold on one second!" Jaden exclaimed. "What exactly is going on here?" He blinked at Chazz and Syrus, mouth open in a typically Jaden-ish manner that Syrus had heard Chazz call an impression of a dead fish. "Are…are you two...wait...hold on…"

"Don't worry Jaden, we have an hour, especially if you skip dinner." Chazz said sarcastically. Syrus shot the pale boy a look and Chazz shut up.

"Jaden, I don't want you to freak out okay?" Syrus continued when he saw Jaden nod. "Well, Chazz and I have kind of been, you know, going out for, um, three weeks or so." Syrus glanced nervously at his best friend for his reaction. Jaden had always seemed very accepting of everyone, but what if…The bluenette's thoughts were cut off when Jaden began to laugh in a manner that was dangerously close to a giggle.

"You mean-heehee- you mean that all this time-teehee- you two have been…oh that's hilarious. I can't believe I didn't guess." The boy chortled. Chazz looked mildly disgusted at this snorting display.

"Well, Yuki, it's not as if you are lauded for you're observance." Chazz's voice snapped as the lanky boy stood up. Syrus rolled his eyes, still amused at his lovers antics and rested a hand on the other boys' arm.

"Chazz, please be nice?" Syrus had the gall to flutter his eyelashes at his boyfriend. Alexis began to snicker.

"You two are just too cute." She choked out in between bouts of laughter. "And come on, I did save you the awkward situation if Zane had found out by walking in on you two, right?" Syrus blinked and felt his cheeks burn at the embarrassment even thinking about that. Chazz started tugging on his arm.

"Come on; let's leave the two gasping freaks on their own. Let's go." Syrus allowed himself to be dragged away from the dock, toward the dorms. Once they had reached a significant distance away, the pair turned to glance back at Alexis and Jaden. The two were kissing, Jaden's hands around the blonde's waist, one making slow circles on her back. Alexis was gently stroking the Slifer's hair

"They're so cute for, you know, a straight couple." Syrus said. "So sweet and innocent and-what?" He broke off at Chazz's incredulous snort.

"Innocent? Not so. They've already gone all the way. It's obvious." Sy blinked in surprise.

"Um, how exactly do you know that?" Syrus asked, torn between curiosity and mild disgust. "And please tell me they weren't having sex in my room."

"I don't know where, you little pervert. I'm not a creepy stalker." Chazz huffed, fuax-offended. "And you can tell because of how they're kissing. If they hadn't had sex yet, they'd be really awkward and overexcited about it."

"Um…ok. How do you know so much about it? Wait, don't answer that. I really would rather not know." He hurriedly changed his mind, jealously not wanting to hear about any escapades Chazz might have had.

"Don't look at me like that, I only know because I observe people. I'm only fifteen, if you'd be so kind as to remember. Of course, so are Jaden and Alexis, but they're just sluts or something and-ow!" Syrus stuck his tongue out at Chazz as the dark haired boy nursed his pinched arm.

"Don't call them sluts. Many of the couples around hear have done it. Bad adult supervision and all." Syrus said, though he knew he was slightly pink from all this talking about sex with his boyfriend.

"Yeah, sometimes I think we're the only pairing around here that are still pure and all that crap. They should just change the name to Fool-Around Academy. Then again, I would not want to know what subject Crowler would teach at FAA."

"That's just disturbing." Syrus finally said, thoroughly revolted. Chazz smirked at him and the bluenette quickly glanced around. Seeing nobody around, he stood on his tiptoes to plant a kiss on Chazz's lips. Chazz deepened the kiss quickly, Syrus gasped at the sensation of a tongue running along his lower lip and his boyfriend rightfully took the open mouth as an invitation. The two tongues clashed in a gentle war together. Finally they regretfully withdrew, fearful of being discovered.

"Now that's what I call a duel." Chazz said in such a smugly satisfied tone of voice that Syrus couldn't help but giggle.

-7-

I think they got very OOC, but whatever.

**Replies-**

**Sapphireluva:** Yeah, the girly guy will make an appearance. He cracks me up. I think I might just make him Chazz's crazy stalker for fun. And I guessed that you are a girl because you just kinda seem more like a girl. I dunno. Dumb luck?

**Battygirl: **-screams and pulls put hair- NOOOO! DUN LEAVE ME! Please don't give up on my story just cos somebody you don't like reviewed it, like once. You've been with me from Chapter Two and I really don't want you to leave.

**PowHammer: **YAY! IT'S MY FIRST REVIEWER!(Who also reviewed my parody GX story) I might just have to dedicate a chapter to you for sticking with me this long, y'know. Thank you for voting! Oh yeah and btw I love your Jagger story.

**TFRiD Queen: **Thanks for the NA info, it's a big help. I think I'm just gonna make up names for the four cronies, and of course I'll use Czar. He's so...Czar-ish.


	8. Ambushes and Arrivals

**Warnings: **The usual...yaoi, kissing, perverted-ish jokes, un-censored version of the show so maybe OOCness, mini-smut in this chapter because they are the oldest two characters, after all….

**Disclaimer: **Don't own it. Don't want to own it. Could never meet the deadlines.

**Summary: **Atticus ambushes someone, sexual banter ensues, but sadly, poor Atty must find a different pastime…such as hanging out at the docks! Longest chapter yet.

**Announcements:** The polls are closed! Two of them got barely any votes, and the other one I just decided myself. Hah!

Bastion's love interest poll results: Undecided, but the polls closed. I have evil plans.

Length poll results: long!

Rating: I changed it to an M. A light M.

**Other: **Atticus is soooo fun to write. Also, I took the liberty of deciding that in this fic Alexis is in her second year, not first, because she always seems as if she's been there longer than the first years, etc. Sorry if this offends you.

Oh yes, and I put more Bastion-yness in this chapter because I've been neglecting him, poor soul.

-7-

Atticus perched in his tree, hooking his legs over a branch. He watched his prey carefully as it walked closer, unsuspecting and unassuming. How could the poor student know that up in the trees a boy with deadly good looks and ravishing charm had carefully plotted an ambush? Impossible, Atticus silently scoffed. Nobody of any intellect was ever prepared for an attack from above. Well, maybe Alexis had gotten used to it but that was entirely beside the point.

The point, assuming one had no innuendo in mind, was that the majority of students and teachers never gave thought to being ambushed from the treetops. One might think that this particular student might have some idea that Atticus was lying in wait for him, but then again, he was often too broody and moody to be concerned with trivial things like that.

"Hey Zane!" Atticus exclaimed as loudly as he could as he swung down so that his upside down face was level with Zane's right side up one. The usually stoic teen jumped slightly, and then shook his head. Damn, no semi-girly scream this time. Atticus must be losing his touch. Or else Zane had gotten used to his boyfriend's antics. Grrr.

"Holding up Obelisk's great name, I see." Zane said, schooling his face back to boring blankness. Atticus crossed his eyes in annoyance. He wished that just for once Zane would open up when they weren't in private. Smiling was honestly not that hard. Everyone else did it all the time.

"Haha, you better believe it!" He crowed, then lowered his voice so that I anyone was watching from the bushes -_stalkers_- they wouldn't be able to hear. 'After all, if it's between you and me, it's obvious that I'm the one who can keep it _up_." Atticus took extreme pleasure in watching Zane's ears turn pink in a flush that traveled down his face; down his neck…Atticus wondered where the blush would stop until Zane distracted him by responding. Damn the boy.

"First, we both know that's not true. Second, must you make innuendo out of everything? Third, we're in public, you know." Zane counted off on his fingers. Atticus licked his lips, a devious plot coming to mind.

"Oh, don't be such a prude, my zany friend, every pun intended. Just think how much more exciting it would be if we did it right here in the middle of the forest when anyone could come and have their sensibilities shocked." Ooh, he had gotten Zane to blush again. Another score for Atticus, though not the only score he'd get today if he had his way. Ooh a rhyme. Perhaps he could make it into a song.

"As…interesting as this dialogue is, I'm not going to be able to take you up on that offer."

"Aww, why not?" He asked, flipping down to stand level with his prudish lover, ukulele held firmly in hand.

"Because I'm going to graduate in two weeks and three days and I'd really rather not be expelled before then and damage my otherwise perfect record." Atticus felt waves of desolation crashing in around him.

'I thought you promised that we weren't going to talk about you leaving!" He complained sullenly. Zane winced, obviously repentant, but it did no good, Atticus felt himself sinking into a funk. He was going to have to stay another year to make up for what he missed being Nightshroud. Of course, he had been a Shadow Rider for a worthy cause, though he couldn't remember it, but still. Now Zane was going to graduate and leave him alone without any friends in his year besides his sister, Alexis. He'd already had to be separated from Zane once and now he had to go through it again? It was more than the lighthearted boy cared to think about.

"Look, Atty, I'm sorry. I forgot. Please, I'll make it up to you." Zane's soft fingers brushed gently against Atticus's chin and the former Shadow Rider, never one to let an opportunity go by, squashed his sadness down again and looked up, an impish gleam in his brown eyes.

"Well, I can think of one _thing_ you could _do_ to make me feel better." He purred silkily, circling a hand around the other boy to caress his ass. Zane jumped and quickly stepped away.

"Atticus! I've already told you, there is no way that I am going to do that in public, let alone in the middle of the forest! It's…it's…"

"Arousing?' Atticus offered helpfully. Zane shot him a look.

"Unsanitary." The azure haired boy finished coldly. "Not to mention it's just…_wrong_. Now I'm going to continue on my way like I was before you jumped me." So saying the bluenette brushed past and marched resolutely toward the cliff edge.

"You know Zane, brooding gets you nowhere in life!" Atticus called after his boyfriend.

"It got me to be the top duelist in this school." The other boy tossed over his shoulder. Atticus gave an overly dramatic sigh and trotted to catch up, strumming on his ukulele.

"Ohhh…There once was a prude named Zane," He began to warble, making up the words as he went along. "Who was quite insane. He wouldn't sleep with his boyfriend-"

"Who happened to have no shame." The aforesaid prude offered. Atticus thumped him on the shoulder merrily.

"That's the lyrical spirit, my friend!" He then resumed singing. "Oh the day was bright and the mood was right but Zane wouldn't do it in the light, he put up quite the fight! The boyfriend was too manly to be called pretty, though he was quite witty, still he deserves your pity, since Zane wouldn't give him any-"

"You are going to drive me insane!" Zane moaned, slapping a hand over the singer's mouth. Atticus took the opportunity to swirl his tongue over Zane's palm.

"Atticus…" He grumbled, removing his hand. "I don't think that we should be doing stuff like that here." Atticus grabbed the hand as it fell toward the taller boy's side and pulled him toward him.

"For once, can't you stop thinking and just feel?" He asked and pulled the other boy into a heady kiss. Zane grumbled in an annoyed fashion but made no move to draw away and instead opened his mouth, complacently letting Atticus in. Atticus grinned happily and rubbed himself against his lover. He then drew back from the kiss, ignoring Zane's noise of protest and instead licked at the other boy's jaw line. So much handsome skin on such an amazing individual and it was all for him...mind boggling...

"Atticus…" Zane groaned. "Stop being such a tease and just kiss me already."

"Better to be a tease than a slut." Atticus pointed out smugly, lifting his head to look the elder Truesdale in the eye. "So just count your blessings that I'm the first and not the second."

Apparently, Zane wasn't in the mood for talking. Atticus found himself backed up against a tree, being aggressively kissed by the bluenette. The shorter boy simply adjusted his position against the rough bark to be more comfortable and let his boyfriend ravish his mouth, shivering as Zane's clever fingers sent thrills of sensation through the cotton of his uniform. Atticus moaned contentedly. Zane kissed the same way he dueled-aggressively seizing control, with his full concentration, and _extremely_ well. Atticus had been the dominant one in all his other relationships but for someone like Zane…who cared?

Suddenly, the soon-to-be-graduating boy pulled away. The brown eyed boy missed the lack of warmth already and gave a muffled noise of protest as Zane started to walk away. The other boy turned around and his lips twitched in what Atticus knew was a bonafide Zane smirk.

"You're not the only on who can tease you know." He said in calm tones. Only someone who knew Zane as well as Atticus did would be able to see that he was affected at all by what had just happened. Atticus knew the little signals: the way his breath was slightly ragged, how his pupils were dilated ever so slightly, the barely visible tremble in his hands, and the way he had licked his lips before speaking.

For now, though, Atticus decided not to call Zane's bluff. Instead, he opted to check out Zane's backside as the boy walked away. He was fine with letting this rest for now. After all, with both of them now aroused and unable to do anything about because of Zane's boring sense of morality and weird competitiveness in arguments, well, that would just make tonight all the better.

-7-

"Hello Bastion!" Atticus called, hurrying to catch up with the Ra. "Where are you going? Secret party down at the lighthouse?" Bastion glanced at him and shook his head.

"Not in the least. The North Academy boat should be coming in today and I'm signed up to be one of the hosts. I'm going to take my new duties very seriously. I plan to meet them at the dock." Atticus cocked an eyebrow. He had thought about being a host, but decided against it. Who wanted to clog up the last two weeks of school teaching some newbie how to surf and stuff? Though Atticus was the sex god of all things sexy and cool, and therefore it was his duty to pass on some of his great wisdom to hapless nerds and dueling freaks…

"I'll come with you!" Atticus decided excitedly. He grabbed Bastion's arm and impatiently dragged the other boy along toward the dock. "So who else is going to be a host from our little group?"

"Chazz, obviously, Jaden, Alexis, Chumley, Syrus, Mindy, Jasmine… I believe that is it. I tried to get as many people as possible. It seems very coincidental that right after we got that strange warning from the Shadow Riders-who I still do not trust- that North Academy is shut down and carted over here. Too coincidental for my liking. I want to keep an eye on these supposed new students." Atticus frowned. Bastion didn't seem like the most trusting guy around. Surely, the kids couldn't be dangerous. This was the second time Bastion had voiced his disbelief, the first being at the meeting he called after finding out. The other's had just rolled their eyes but Bastion was one of the smartest kids in the school…

"Are Mindy and Jasmine even part of our group?" Atticus asked, deciding to keep his confusion to himself for now.

"No, but their okay as far as girls go." Bastion said disdainfully. "Better than that Shadow Rider, at any rate." So that was the catch of it. Bastion was still angry at being humiliated by Tanya. Made sense enough.

"Not that hot on girls, then?" He enquired, jumping on the opportunity. Atticus had a little contest going no who could guess the most students sexual orientation correctly. Atticus was betting on Bastion being bi, Zane said straight. At the moment Atticus was behind, so this was a very crucial wager.

"I meant no disrespect for your sister. Alexis is a very smart person and a close friend." Damn, Bastion had thought Atticus was implying some sort of brotherly championship. Though that was noble and all, and good to know that Bastion trusted Alexis, this information did nothing to further Atticus's knowledge.

"None taken. Oh look, there's our Slifer friends! Oi, Slifs!" Atticus shouted as they neared the dock. Jaden, Syrus and Chumley were talking animatedly while Chazz leaned against a wall, looking sulky as usual.

"Oh, hey Atticus. I didn't know you signed up to be a host." Syrus said politely, still looking the tiniest bit nervous. Atticus was reminded that he had put the tiny boy inside a volcano.

"I'm not one. I was just bored, saw Bastion, and decided to come down and hang out with you guys! Afterall, the only other person I could really hang out with is Zane and he's too busy being sanitary right now." He said mournfully.

"Sanitary?" Chumley repeated, confused. "You mean he's washing his hands or something?"

"Oh, I'll bet." Atticus half-turned toward the black-clad boy slouching against the wall. Chazz was grinning maliciously and raised an eyebrow challenging. Atticus treated him to a sunny smile. He liked Chazz; the boy was smart and sarcastically funny. Right now Atticus was treated to a wink that let him know the first year knew what was really going on. "More likely he just didn't want to have wild sex with you, right?"

"Chazz!" Syrus shrieked, jumping forward to clap a hand over the other boy's mouth. "Would you be so kind to remember that's my _brother_?" Atticus snickered. He knew that Zane and his relationship was the worst kept secret and practically public knowledge to the entire student body. Really, only the teachers were in the dark about it.

"I thought that was a rumor!" Jaden exclaimed, mouth hanging open in shock. "You mean…why am I always so in the dark about things like this!"

"Isn't this the first time?' Chumley inquired. The three other Slifers and Bastion shared a look and Atticus suppressed another chuckle. Obviously, Chazz and Syrus were a slightly better kept tryst. Really, Atticus only knew because Zane had been seething in brotherly protectiveness.

"Since when has Jaden been able to count?" Bastion inquired. Everyone laughed and the subject was effectively dropped, turning instead to chatter about certain cards.

"Hey guys." Alexis said, arriving with her little friends. Jasmine fluttered her eyes coyly at Atticus and gave a flirtatious little wave behind Alexis's back. Atticus winked at her. Sure, he didn't like girls that way, but he had to keep up the image of supreme sex god of the universe. Mindy didn't look at Atticus, which was odd. She seemed to be sneaking little glances at…Bastion? Hmm…

"Lexi!" Jaden said excitedly and threw his arms around the Obelisk. Alexis giggled and hugged him back. Their mouths met in a kiss and Atticus politely averted his eyes. Chazz made a retching sound.

"Get a room, would you? I fail to see how this is needed." Chazz tossed off sourly. Atticus laughed at the expression on the other boys face until Bastion interrupted them.

"Look, the ship's pulling in!" Indeed it was, large and grey, looking uncompromising. It docked in a flurry of excitement and Atticus saw that many other DA students had shown up to watch. Chazz was actually showing interest, leaning forward. Atticus raised his brows. Most interesting…most interesting indeed…He wondered how this would all play out…

-8-

_The dragon was huge and black, as if onyx and its smoking eyes were like whirling rubies, the color of blood. Nicole's heart fluttered against her ribcage- there was no turning back now that she was here. _

"_What do you want, foolish mortal? Why do you dare invade my space? I will slaughter you like all of your cruel kin would me!" Hissed the fearsome drake. Even though she had been warned about the dread dragon's ability to speak to certain mortals, it was another thing entirely to hear him. Nicole summoned up her courage, glancing back over to where her companions were hiding, and spoke._

"_Do not attempt to harm me!" She shouted as loud as she could. "For I come not to harm but help you! There once was a time when dragons were respected and honored. Now they are not. My friend's and I, we remember the days of old! We are going to all the dragons to help them until they can be revered once more.Bind yourself to my card…Red Eyes Black Dragon!"_

_The great dragon blinked and opened his mouth. Fire built in his gaping maw-_

"Why must you reread the same chapter every day?" Atticus looked up, justifiably annoyed at being interrupted, and looked over his boyfriend with a disapproving glare.

"Yes, because you never re-read Patrick's chapter on taming the Cyber End Dragon." He said sarcastically.

"Well, at least it's about a boy, not a girl. That book is entirely historically inaccurate. The cards were just made, not bound." Clearly, something that annoying had to be ignored, so Atticus turned back to reading.

_Fire built in his gaping maw and Nicole shook in her leather boots, waiting to be blasted…waiting to be blasted…waiting to be blasted…waiting to be blasted…_

Atticus realized he had been reading the same part over again. This was entirely not his fault as Zane had decided this was an excellent time to start licking his boyfriend's ear. Atticus raised an eyebrow and glanced at his unusually playful best friend and boyfriend.

"In a good mood, I take it?" He inquired, closing the book. Zane smirked back at him, and then leaned forward so that Atticus could feel his hot breath against his skin, making him shiver deliciously.

"Well, I was thinking we could finish what we started earlier…" Zane's voice was husky and Atticus moaned in agreement. It was going to be a long and hard night, in more ways than one.

-8-

-drools- And yes, I didn't give you any info on the NA students. That's next chapter! Well, chapter after next, I have something interesting planned…it's a weird idea...

**3 Replies-**

**Battygirl:** YAY! You are staying! SQUEEE! Jaden's a bit of a dumbass, isn't he? Over-exuberant –shudders- the peppy nature….it burns…lol. Thanks for the review! Chazz and Syrus are your two favorite characters? Cool! Chazz is mine and Syrus is my sisters.

**Feral Faust and Fickle: **Thanks for the review! Thanks for the compliments! You'll swell my head and I'll float away! –floats away- wheee….

**Akane The Fox: **Wow you like my story that much? I'm truly amazed. Chazz and Syrus are such a cute pairing, I agree. There are not enough ChazzSy shippers out there. I've only ever read four ChazzSy fics, one being yours and one being mine. It's depressing. Syrus with a stalker? Never –shifty eyes- Why would I ever give any of my characters stalkers? Oh, right, because it'll be funny.

**yamitenshikagome**Your story is great, there should be more SyrusChazz! In answer to your review reply to my review of your story(blah) , Yes I do like JadenZane sometimes. Not an "OMFGuuushFAVE!" thing but more like a " that's a cool pairing" thing.

Later!


	9. Immigrants and Idolatry

**A/N: **OMG! I am sosososoosoooo incredibly sorry for going this long without updating! Six fucking months…I ought to be burned at stake. Ah well. What happened was this: A) I went to camp for practically the entire summer B) I started a new school in the fall C) I was on my field hockey team and it took up a lot of time D) I stopped watching YGOGX and so lost all my inspiration/interest.

Wait wait! But then, out of the darkness, came about a million reviews! Okay, maybe not a million, but you guys kept bugging me over the months! So, I started thinking about it a bit. Then, a bit later, I was looking through some old files and I found –gasp- a background I had made of Chazz pictures. And suddenly I was like: OMFG! How could I forgotten my obsessed love for this boy?!?!?!?! I went back, watched my fav episodes (AKA The New Chazz, School Duel 1 &2, Dark Scorpions, Sibling Rivalry and Field of Screams 1-3) reread this fic and was like damn! I actually want to write more of this!

So I did!

Feel free to throw things at me, though.

**Warnings: **-sighs- this again…yaoi, het, some mild cursing in this chapter, first part the POV is like, messed up 'cause Bastion was being an ass at me and I was trying to introduce the NA studentials. Um…that's all for this chapter, I believe…Well, it did become rather Chazz-centricdoes that require a warnings? I cna't help my obsession!

**Disclaimer: **I repeat, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. I thought this was obvious, as the current season and end of season 1 disgust me. -is disgusted and appaled- Though Edo Pheonix is okay looking...I could see him being yaoi-ful with someone...But they messed with my Chazz! GRRRR! And they put Syrus in Ra, which is disgusting, becuase I mean, LOOK AT HIS HAIR! And they made Zane be all like "I'm going goth!" and I just want to smack the characters and be like 'STFU'

**Summary: **North Academy arrives, Chazz is mobbed, and Bastion has an interesting discussion with his new roommate.

**Other: **I made up the names of three of the NA students in this chapter. Kyle, however, is the actual name of the high voiced guy. I figured this out when I was rewatching The New Chazz on youtube. The Czar turns to high-voiced guy and goes 'Kyle, tell him how the system works" and then he's all like "You gotta battle us, bitch!" Well, not exactly, but you get the point.

Oh yes, and for the perosn who wnated to be my beta, since it was such a lnog time ago that you asked, I need you to let me know that you;re still interested. I won't hate you if you aren't, though.

Ah! This chapter is dedicated to **PowHammer** for being my first reviewer for this story and **Akane The Fox **for reviewing telling me that I couldn't abandon this story. -loves at both-

-9-

"Look, the ship's pulling in!" Bastion said to hush the others, tensing in anticipation as the sub surfaced. It docked and a gangway was lowered so that the passengers could disembark. The first to get off was their chancellor, Foster. Sheppard stepped forward and the two shook hands.

"I would like to thank you on behalf of all the North Academy for letting us stay here in our time of need." The balding man said with a weary smile. Suddenly Chazz growled and punched the air next to him and Jaden snickered uncontrollably.

"Shut it, you three freaks! No, I am not grateful, I hate all three of you worthless little scumbags!" Bastion turned to give his friend a look that was meant to convey the sentiment of 'Please, Chazz, I am trying to listen, save your craziness, however amusing, for another time.' Somehow, he doubted the message was getting across.

"Duel Academy is glad to help out any other establishment dedicated to teaching the next generation of duelists." Chancellor Sheppard agreed. "Now, I know all your kids must be tired from their journey. Each of them had been assigned a host, they can room with them until we can properly sort them into the correct dorms."

"Oh, a North Academy Duelist is ready to duel at anytime! But there does seem to be a considerable number of students here…" He trailed off, evidently realizing that Sheppard was staring at him, confused. Everyone was, in fact, except for Chazz.

"I think you could be useful to explain things." Bastion muttered to the spiky-haired boy. "So get up there." Chazz glanced at him and nodded, making his way to where the two chancellors stood.

"Excuse me, I think I may be able to help clear a few things up." He said, projecting his voice so that it could be heard by all the gathered students and faculty.

"That might be helpful." Sheppard said with an embarrassed expression. Bastion snorted.

"Well, sir, you see, while at Duel Academy the only real ranking is being sorted into the three dorms and is decided by the written test and proctored duel, North Academy's system is more ornate. Each student duels every single other student, from lowest rank to highest, until they lose, so that every student has a personal ranking. Oh yeah, and they have to find all their cards in the ice before they can enter the compound." Chazz explained. Bastion raised his eyebrows. An interesting system.

"So what ranking were you, Chazz? You went there for a while right?" Some wise guy called out. Bastion rolled his eyes. _That'll really make a good impression on the new students, _he thought sarcastically.

"Well I was chosen as the school champion, wasn't I? That should give you a clue, moron." Chazz retorted scathingly, glaring at the mass of students from which the voice had come.

"Thank you, Mr. Princeton." Chancellor Sheppard said, a slight warning tone in his voice. Chazz flushed and turned back to the two school heads. Mindy giggled and Bastion noticed Syrus glaring at her from behind his glasses. _The power of love…_ He mused. _It can turn lambs to lions and lions to lambs, at least in Syrus and Chazz's relationship._

"Ah! Thank you, Chazz." Chancellor Foster said, interrupting Bastion's thoughts. "I suppose that my boys won't be too adverse to, um, being resorted in your manner."

"Thank you, Foster. How about you call them down?"

"Oh, um, yes." The man seemed easy to get flustered. Suddenly he drew himself up as straight as he could and turned back to his ship. "North academy students, fall out, rank order, lowest to highest!" He boomed, making several people jump.

A line of boys came trailing down the gangplank. As soon as they all reached the ground, however, all form of discipline left and they practically rushed at where the Chancellors stood, yelling

"CHAZZ!" They all were screaming as they engulfed their former schoolmate in a horde.

"Ack!" Chazz's strangled cry floated over their heads as everyone looked on with shocked expressions. Bastion was torn between being worried that Chazz was going to be bodily harmed, amusement at how they had swamped him and horror at how loud the North Academy seemed to be.

"Ah-hem! Um, boys!" Foster seemed frantically trying to get his student's attention. "I know we're all, ah, very happy to see Chazz again but I think that you might…er…crush him…and…" It became clear that his words had to effect. "BOYS!" He thundered. "Behave yourself or else I'll put you all on latrine duty!" They fell back, except for five boys who stood around Chazz almost protectively, to the boy's evident dismay.

"Right then." Sheppard seemed rather taken aback. "All of the Duel Academy students who were chosen as hosts, I suppose you ought to go find yourself a new student." With that, mild pandemonium broke out as the fifty selected DA kids went to snatch a NA counterpart. Bastion and his friends made their way over to Chazz, mostly to see if he was okay.

"The Czar thinks that he should get to be with Chazz, as he is the top duelist." The largest boy was saying. Another boy, who looked smaller, piped up in a high voice.

"Hey! That's not fair! I wanted to be with Chazz! We five should be with you and your friends, right, Chazz?" The boy in question blanched and glared moodily.

"Don't I get a say in this? Who even said that I have friends, anyway?" He inquired in an annoyed voice.

"How could anyone not want to be your friend Chazz?" A third boy asked admiringly, this one with spiky hair that had a distinctly blue tint to it. "We're all your friends."

"Kill me now." Chazz begged the group of Bastion, Syrus, Jaden, Alexis, and Atticus as they reached him. Chumley, Mindy and Jasmine had wandered off to find other boys to show around the school.

"Aha! Chazz is joking, kidding around with us!" The Czar exclaimed with a hearty laugh. He slapped Chazz on the back, accidentally knocking the light boy down.

"Oof!" The pale boy landed in an unceremonious heap. He sat up and accepted Syrus's helping hand in getting up, before brushing himself off. "I see none of you have changed." He muttered sarcastically.

"Wow, Chazz, I never knew you were so popular at North Academy!" Jaden laughed. All of a sudden, the five new student's carefree demeanor changed. They all stepped closer together around Chazz and glared daggers at the peppy Slifer. "What'd I say?" Jaden asked, looking a trifle scared at the evil looks being directed at him.

"You." This was a boy hose hair looked exactly like a judge's wig. "We remember _you_. You're the one who tried to publicly humiliate the Chazz." He growled. _Oh, right,_ Bastion remembered, _the school duel_. Chazz against Jaden, and Chazz had lost.

"Um…" Chazz piped up. "No, he didn't…Just because he won doesn't mean he was trying to humiliate me. I was trying to humiliate him." He explained. "He's in my dorm, sadly enough, so you should really not, you know, glare at him like that."

"What? You would never try to humiliate someone, Chazz!' The last boy spoke up, a slightly bulky boy with a tiny mustache and short hair. All of the Duel Academy students gave him a flat, disbelieving look.

"Yes, yes, I would." Chazz corrected with an evil smirk. "I humiliated all of you, didn't I?" Bastion raised his eyebrows. There was an interesting story in there, he was sure.

"Oh yeah!" piped up the squeaky voiced boy. "I remember that. That was _cool_." Bastion noted with interest that Syrus was getting rather antsy, looking a bit disgruntled about all of this.

"What happened?" Atticus asked, evidently to try to clear the tense mood that had surrounded the group.

"He beat the four of us at one time and then crushed the Czar in practically one move!" That was Wig-Hair, as Bastion had taken to calling him inside his head.

"Well, this has been interesting." Alexis cut in. "But we really should select our old-new student pairings, shouldn't we?" She stepped to the front of the group, having previously been hidden slightly behind Atticus. Bastion saw with amusement how the Czar's eye widened as he tried not to stare at the girl's chest.

"Certainly! The Czar agrees and wouldn't mind being paired with Chazz's female friend in the least." He said. Jaden looked as if he was about to comment, but Alexis had already nodded.

"Chazz! You have to choose which one of us you want to host!" Mustache complained. Chazz gave a long suffering sigh before pointing at High-Voice.

"Fine. Kyle. You're the smallest, so hopefully you'll take up the least space." The boy gave a yelp of delight and threw his arms around his idol. "Let go of me." Chazz ground out while Syrus glared.

"Well, are all the rest of you hosts?" Wig-Hair asked. "I'm Nash, the pipsqueak's Kyle, the big guy is The Czar, blue-head is Ryker and the idiot with the sad facial hair is Bayle. We're North Academy's top five duelists, if you don't count Chazz."

"The Czar is number one," Ryker added. "Kyle is two, then me, then Nash, and Bayle is number five."

"But I'm going to be number one soon!' Kyle piped up in his ridiculously high voice. "So Czar better watch out!" Bayle reached out and flicked the smaller boy's ear. "Ow!"

"Shut it, brat." The Czar grumbled. "He's the youngest duelist to be accepted into North Academy, so he has big ideas of himself."

"So let me get this straight," Bastion interrupted smoothly in an attempt to steer the conversation back to its original purpose. "Ryker, Nash and Bayle all need hosts, correct?"

"Yeah. So, _are _all the rest of you hosts?" Nash asked again. Atticus raised his hands up, shaking his head and smirking.

"Not me. I'm just here to see how it all flows and maybe go surfing when the commotion dies down." He explained then pointed at Jaden, Syrus and Bastion. "Those are the three you want."

"Blue haired people should stick together." Rykker decided with a nod at Syrus, who smiled bashfully in reply.

"You seem the smartest." Nash informed Bastion, pushing his glasses up his nose with a finger. "So, if you don't mind, I'll be with you."

"Which leaves me and Bayle!" Jaden says. "Oh boy, oh boy, I'm so excited! I'm going to be a great guide, just you wait! Heehee!" He bounced around the other kids excitedly until, with the ease of practice, Chazz reached out and grabbed the boy shirt.

"Listen, Slacker, you need to calm down or I swear I'll fu-"

"Chazz! Don't swear!" Syrus squeaked with a commanding glare. Chazz, amazingly enough, sighed and released Jaden.

"Just shut it, okay, Jaden?" The boy finally finished in a much calmer tone. Bastion hid his laughter with a cough.

"Well then, how about we start showing our new students to their dorms?" Alexis said. "I mean, I know that I am going to have to get The Czar to share with another Obelisk-he can't stay in the girl's dorms, but whatever."

"He better not." Jaden's voice was jealous as he grabbed his girlfriend's hand protectively. She giggled. Bastioned rolled his eyes at their antics and turned to Nash.

"Well then. Let's get started, hm? Ra dorms are this way." He said. The boy nodded and they set out toward the yellow building, Bastion leading the way.

-9-

"Nice pad." Nash commented as the two entered the Duel Academy boy's room. The new student glanced around admiringly. "My room at North Academy wasn't nearly as large, and I had one of the bigger rooms, too. Though I did have to share it with the other top five."

"Thanks." Bastion said shortly. He didn't trust these North Academy boys, not one bit. They seemed nice enough, but it seemed awfully convenient that their school was shut down right after the Shadow Riders had given that strange warning. Much too convenient for Bastion's liking. "You can put your bags on your bed. It's the one near the window."

"Ah, thank you." The long-haired boy placed his things on the aforementioned bed and then glanced curiously at the wall. He ran a long finger down a complicated sum. "Is this an equation for rap cards in a zombie type deck?" Oh yes, Bastion had created that equation during the Camulla fiasco. Thankfully, he had not needed to use it.

"Yes, it is. More importantly, it's an equation to figure out trap card sacrifices by an element deck against a zombie deck." Bastion replied, the equation that Nash was referring to clear in his mind form memorization.

"Interesting. Zombie type decks are rare though, aren't they? I've never seen one. Is there someone at this school who uses one?" Nash seemed genuinely curious and Bastion wondered how to reply.

"Well, there was one such deck here …at one point." He finally said awkwardly. "But the user left. I don't know where she is now." There, he hadn't lied. Nash nodded, looking at all the different formulas. The silence seemed oppressive, so Bastion was thankful when the brown haired boy spoke again.

"I see. With North Academy being such a small school, hard to get into, we don't get to see that many new deck types." The boy said. Bastion frowned slightly.

"Duel Academy is very prestigious and hard to get into as well." He countered, staunchly loyal to his school. Nash turned with a confused expression than shook his head.

"I didn't mean to imply that, but with greatest respect, it's not the same at all. In North Academy you have to find forty cards and they aren't hidden in easy to reach spots. You have to climb, hike, jump and even swim to find them."

"Oh yes!" Bastion exclaimed, remembering Chazz's earlier comments. "And then you have to duel with those very cards to decide your rankng, correct? That seems rather unfair to me. If one person found better cards than another, but was the weaker duelist, they might still be ranked on top."

"Well, about that," Nash mumbled in an uneasy tone, blushing slightly as if embarrassed. "Well, most of us got our original decks back once we got inside. Chazz was just a special case."

"Really? Why?" Bastion asked, his interest piqued despite his misgivings.

"Well, Chancellor Foster said he wanted to test him and help him blossom as a duelist or something. Basically….well, Foster tossed his old deck in the water and gave him Ojama Yellow to make up for it."

"Really? W interesting. Chazz never mentioned that." Bastion mused, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Thought I have to admit, it serves him right."

"What? Why?" Nash inquired fiercely, instantly pinning his host with a fierce brown glare. Bastion folded his arms.

"Well, Chazz might not have told you all this whiles you were busy idolizing him, but he used to be a stuck-up brat here before he left. He wanted to beat me so he threw one of my decks into the ocean." Bastion said sourly. He liked Chazz _now_ but Chazz then was a royal pain in the ass.

"…" Nash seemed to be absorbing this information, a solemn expression on his face. Then, suddenly, he broke out laughing, making Bastion jump with surprise.

"What's so funny? It was rude and a cheater's way! Besides, I beat him, anyway." Nash continued laughing. "What? What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing, it's just that throwing you deck in the water is very like him to do. It's amusing." Nash took off his glasses and cleaned them with the hem of his shirt, evidently claming himself. "He was an ass at North Academy, too, in the beginning. It's all part of his charm, you know?"

"Not really. I don't understand how you all can continue to love and worship someone if he acts like a conceited ass to you. I mean, Chazz is one of my friends now that I understand him better and he lost the attitude, but back then he was a piece of work."

"Well, I guess we all like him because, I dunno." Nash shrugged. "Chazz is kind of a little guy's hero, you know? I mean, he doesn't want to be, of course, and he likes to act all tough, but inside it's totally different. He's not perfect, he loses duels all the time when he could win them if he just got over himself and stopped stressing. He wants to be perfect but he can't be and it frightens him. Plus he has a weakness for people who get downtrodden and stepped on."

"Hmm." Bastion blinked. He hadn't expected such an insightful answer from his guest. "Well, he didn't exactly show that side to any of us until he got back."

"Well, for guys like The Chazz, you have to beat 'em around a bit before they show you their nice side." Nash gave a smug grin. "Foster knew that, so he opted to sink Chazz's ship, toss him in the ice cold water, give him the most annoying card in the world, toss him out of the water onto some ice, had him scramble around for a while to find his cards, then he had to duel all of us."

"Isn't that slightly extreme?" The black-haired boy asked, slightly horrified and befuddled. Nash snorted.

"Probably, but Foster is a little crazy and since Chazz is a little crazy he felt a connection." He smirked. "Besides, everyone was getting rather sick of The Czar and he needed a moral booster. Operation: Get Chazz was pretty fun, too. Though Foster didn't tell us he'd be able to kick our butts without working up a sweat."

"Was he really that good? No offense, but Chazz was barely ever able to beat any of us until he came back."

"Yes, but while he was here before, his brothers would frequently send him messages about how he had to live up to the name and not be a slacker and how all their dreams depended on him and whatever." Nash countered and Bastion frowned.

"Really? How do you know that?" He asked. He couldn't picture Chazz opening up to people, especially people he had only known for a month. Sometimes Bastion thought that the fallen Obelisk just enjoyed being an enigma inside a mystery locked in a riddle and wasn't as complicated as he pretended to be.

"Didn't you know? Chazz talks in his sleep." Bastion instantly perked up, interested despite himself. He was a sucker for gossip…err…he was a sucker for information.

"Oh really? Did he say anything else of interest?"

The two boys spent a long time on that topic.

-9-

If you want to know why Chazz said that,The Ojama's were probably being all like "**It's Foster! He's the one that gave you Ojama Yellow! He's the reason we're all one big family togetehr now! yay! Aren't you grateful?**"

Thanks for reading and again, I am SOSOSOSO sorry about the humongeous(new word!) wait. I'll try to be better and get the next chapter out ASAP. It'll be from Kyle's perceptive, cos I'm cool that way.

Oh, and any suggestions on which NA kid Bastion should be with welcome. The ones I'm leaning toward are Ryker, Kyle, or, of course, Nash. Lemme know in a review, my lovelies!

♥

Rose (Like my new penname, btw?)


	10. Envy and Eavesdropping

**Warnings: **yaoi, swearing, OOCness, Kyle-centric, ear flicknig, unintentional voyeurism, all that fun stuff.

**Disclaimer: **I own it!

Kyle: No you don't!

Rose: Shut it, brat! -flicks ear-

Kyle: OW! Child Abuse!

**Summary: **Kyle reflects on his past, rooms are decided, Chazz loses a precious possession and Kyle overhears some stuff trying to fall asleep. Poor baby. -patpat-

**Other: **Well, I wrote this chapter pretty quick, for me. You see, m'dears, when I write I like to imagine hearing the voices of the characters saying the lines that i write so that I cna be sure that they don't go completely against speech patterns and whatever. So that was pretty good fro me in this chapter. Also, Kyle's personality was pretty fun to do. I kinda based him off of some 13-yr-old boys that i know (yes, in this he's 13. Shh) and how I was at 13, so yeah!

Dedicated to **Coco Gash Niccals,** because that review made me giggle from start to finish!

-10-

Kyle was practically floating on air as he pranced along side of the other students on the way to his new dorm. He had gotten Chazz! The Chazz! Man, he was good. He had beaten all those other losers, even The Czar, who had forfeited, and had triumphed to snag his idol! Yes! Cha-ching!

The young duelist would be the first to admit that he was slightly obsessed about Chazz. Not in _that_ way, of course, but in a truly fanatical fixation. He wanted to be like Chazz and tried to emulate him to the best of his abilities. Kyle replayed all the duels he'd seen Chazz have over and over inside his head and tried to discover his strategy and copy it.

More than anything, he wanted Chazz to be his brother.

That was stupid, he knew that, really, but Kyle couldn't help it. Ever since he was little he'd wanted an older brother. He'd always been the best in his classes and could beat most of his teachers. They all respected him and were in awe of him, but it made Kyle feel very, very lonely. He wanted someone, an older sibling, to be able to teach him things, make fun of him. Someone for him to respect and love.

That was why when he was thirteen he'd sent out an application to Duel Academy. They'd turned him down and told him to come back in two years. Not to be put off, he then applied to North Academy. The return message had said that he was welcome to try.

Kyle had gone and managed to find 40 cards in the ice flows. He'd been very excited when he'd gotten in. Finally, finally, he'd be beaten and have to actually work! He wouldn't be the best, he wouldn't be a protégé, he'd be normal.

Except that little plan fell through. He beat more and more people. He thought about throwing a duel but that was lame and not what he was looking for. At last he was beaten, by some kid named Ryker who was later beat by some guy who called himself The Czar.

Two months later, Kyle had beaten Ryker and become second best duelist in his school. It was disgusting and not at all what he'd wanted. Ryker had been nice, if predictable, but he could never look up to The Czar. What a self-important peacock! Jeez...

Then everything had changed when a certain black haired duelist had entered the school. Chazz had beaten everyone, and beaten them _with class_. What's more, he'd turned out to be pretty nice, if a tad crazy.

Chazz had gotten his respect when he'd beaten him. He'd garnered his adoration when he'd come across some of the larger boys picking on Kyle-sure he was one of the best duelists, but he was still the smallest, youngest kid there- and told them that if they messed with the younger boy they'd have to answer to him, Chazz Princeton.

Ever since then Kyle had been slightly obsessive about his revered protector. He wanted to be like Chazz and more than anything he wanted Chazz to like him. The Princeton was his idol, his goal. He wanted to be as confident as Chazz was, as proud, as smart, as skilled, as funny, everything!

Sometimes Kyle wondered if his intense preoccupation was healthy. It probably wasn't, he had finally decided, but that didn't matter He just wanted Chazz like him, to maybe praise him and at least be friends with him.

"So, Kyle," Suddenly the dark haired boy was brought out of his thoughts. He turned toward the speaker, the bouncy brown haired boy who'd dueled Chazz. Jaden or whatever. "The Czar said you were the youngest kid ever to be accepted into North Academy right? So how young are you?"

"I'm going to be fourteen in a month and two days!" Kyle said, somewhat excitedly. He was looking forward to his birthday after all. He realized that the Duel Academy kids were looking at him askance.

"He's supposed to be some kind of protégé." Ryker chipped in. "I don't know, I can't really see it myself. He's not that good."

"I beat you, didn't I?" Kyle snapped. "Unless you want me to refresh your memory?" His hand went to his pocket, where his deck was. Ryker reached forward and flicked Kyle's ear, as his friends had wont to do. "Ow! Jeez, stop that!"

"Stop being a twerp, twerp." Ryker replied with a grin. "We've been in the stupid sub for days and all you can think about is dueling. God, you make me feel old and tired."

"But wow, you're thirteen? That is impressive!" Jaden exclaimed, clapping his hands together. Kyle smiled at him. Chazz had said he was okay, after all. "At some point you're gonna have to duel me so I can see how good you are!"

"Oh great, there's two of them." Bayle mumbled. Kyle giggled his high pitched laugh and Bayle cuffed him on the back of the head. "Please tell me that someone brought tranquilizers for this kid." Kyle glared, actually annoyed now. That had _hurt_!

"Alright, enough." Chazz cut in calmly. Bayle and Ryker subsided and Kyle sent his defender a thankful grin, which was ignored, of course. "Here's the dorms."

"Oh, no!" The small bluenette spoke up suddenly. "I just realized! In our room we're going to have me, Jay, Chumley, Ryker, Bayle and Chum's person! We won't fit."

"Oh, man, Sy, you're right! Chazz, you're going to have to share a room with someone." Jaden said, turning to the black-haired boy, who looked outraged.

"Absolutely not! It's bad enough that I have to share with that thing," Suddenly Kyle had a finger pointing accusatorily at him, making him blink. "But someone else as well? No way."

"Aw, come on Chazz! There's only three more weeks of school, next year I'm sure you'll get your own room back." Syrus argued. Kyle blinked. Did he just…bat his eyelashes at Chazz? Chazz, who now clenched his fists with blush on his cheeks? No, Kyle decided, it must have been a trick of the light.

"Fine! But if you expect me to share a room with Chubby or Jaden, you are dead wrong!" Chazz finally snarled. "You and Ryker can sleep in my room."

"Come on, Chazz, me and Chumley aren't that bad, are we?" Jaden complained. Chazz shot him a look.

"It's Chumley and I, dimwit, and yes, you are. You're an overexcited idiot and he's fat and annoying. I'd take Syrus over you two any day." He grumbled. "Though I'd rather share my room with nobody at all! It's crowded enough as it is."

"How can your room be crowded, Chazz?" Jaden asked, confused. "You're the only one in it."

"Never mind, moron. Anyway, here we are. All of you who are planning on taking over my precious space, follow me." He said haughtily and stalked toward the second door over on the second level. He flung it open.

"Hello, Slifer-Slackers!" caroled out a high, annoying voice. Kyle's eyes widened and he peered around his host to see a woman, no, a man, no, an androgynous _thing_ sitting in the middle of a room that had two twin beds.

"Ack! What did you do to my room?" Chazz demanded brashly. "And why are you in it, Crowler?"

"That's Dr. Crowler to you, Mr. Princeton!" Snapped the thing. Oh, Kyle could sort of remember it now, it was the thing that had announced Chazz's school duel. "And the Chancellor and I were going through the lists and we realized that you'd have to share a room with three others or else the room next door would explode. So I took the liberty of fixing up your room to accommodate you guests, neheh."

"What? How dare you? My bed, my beautiful bed!" Chazz was lamenting. Kyle was about to say something when Syrus beat him to it.

"Oh, come on Chazz, where were you going to have us sleep? Under the bed?" He asked, placing hands on his hips and facing Chazz squarely.

"It was an idea." The taller boy said in a sad tone. Kyle rolled his eyes, still watching the Crowler person warily. It really, really freaked him out. It had pink ruffles! Who in their right mind had pink ruffles? And that lipstick! Kyle wasn't sure which would scare him more- if this was a girl or if it was a guy.

"Well, now that I cleared all this up, I'm going back to the real students-The Obelisks!" The thing smirked and brushed past the kids. "I do hope that you North Academy students manage to get into my dorm!" He called back over his shoulder.

"That was odd." Ryker finally said, summing up Kyle's feelings perfectly. Syrus and Chazz just sighed.

"It's just the professor's personality. Disgusting, but you'll learn to ignore it." Chazz finally said. Syrus gave him a calculating look. Kyle would just love to know the dynamic of their relationship- there was something bugging him about it, niggling in the back of his mind.

"You used to be one of his favorites though, Chazz." The small boy accused. Chazz glared back but was interrupted by the nasally voice again.

"Oh right, I almost forgot! I found this in your room, Mr. Princeton," Here the thing brandished a blue uniform, one of the Obelisk ones, that was inside some kind of protective seal. 'I figured that you didn't need it anymore so I'll just be taking it off your hands."

"What?" Chazz hissed. Kyle noticed in alarm that his idol had gone pale as a sheet. He lunged at the professor. "Give me back my uniform! That's mine! You dirty, rotten, goddamn-"

"Now, now, Chazz!" Dr. Crowler deftly held the garment out of the student's reach. "Don't make me give you a detention for language and violence!" It cackled and pranced off, leaving a fuming Chazz and three worried looking boys.

"That asshole!" The boy finally spat. Syrus squeaked and covered his ears. Kyle blinked. "That disgusting, good-for-nothing, fake-professorial, repellent, frivolous, inflated, conceited, narcissistic, vindictive, small-minded, petty-"

"Um, Chazz?" Syrus interrupted, much to Kyle's disappointment. He'd wanted to see how long it would take before the older boy ran out of adjectives. "You sound like a thesaurus. Or Bastion."

"Same thing." Chazz muttered, slamming his fist into the doorway. "Get in and pick your beds. Scumbags." The last word was muttered under his breath.

"Would you, um, like a top bunk?' Kyle offered, trying to be helpful. "OW! Ryker! I didn't even do anything this time! That hurt!" he whined, clutching his poor abused ear.

"You were being an idiot. Don't you remember how much Chazz _flails_? He'd probably fall down and smack his head open if he had a top bunk." Ryker said. Kyle glared at him. Just because he hadn't remembered one little fact didn't mean the boy had to flick his ear for about the twentieth time that day!

"Yeah, well, whatever. I don't see what my ear has to do with it. And that ear's getting sore. You could at least alternate and flick the other sometimes, too-OW! I didn't mean right now!"

"Um…" Syrus stammered, worry coloring his voice. Ryker turned toward his host with a conciliatory expression on his face.

"Don't mind Kyle. He whines a lot. So, would you like top or bottom? Of the bunks, I mean." Huh? That one went right over Kyle's head. He'd ask Nash or someone to explain later. And maybe also explain why it caused Chazz to turn practically purple and shoot a venomous glare at Ryker's unassuming back.

"Oh, um, bottom." Syrus stuttered. "I don't really like heights." He explained. Ryker nodded and the boys set to unpacking their stuff while Chazz glowered and muttered to invisible voices to _shut up._

-10-

Kyle lay in his bed, hands behind his head, eyes closed. The rest of the day had passed without notable incident. Chazz and his friends had taken them to dinner, which wasn't that great in quality but more edible than the Princeton's grumbles made it seem.

After dinner, they'd toured around campus. The North Academy boys had been so completely in awe of the forests and the idea of a hot spring bath that their hosts had decided that the next day, Saturday, would become an impromptu picnic-and-hot-spring day. Kyle had no complaints.

When it grew to be too dark, the group had headed back to their dorms. The girl, Alexis, and Jaden had made a big show of kissing goodbye, causing Chazz to pretend to be sick. At Slifer, Chazz and his friends had started doing homework in Jaden and Chumley's room.

It turned out Chumley's buddy was Xandy, number 31 in the rankings. Kyle didn't really know that much about Xandy. Being so different in their rank, the two had rarely dealt with one another. Well, except if you counted when Xandy had helped stuff Kyle into the trash can in the mess hall, but most of the other duelists had done something like that at one point or another, so it was no way to judge.

Now he was merely waiting for sleep to claim him. So far this Duel Academy place seemed alright. He still missed North Academy, though. Beautiful North Academy, with so much water and snow everywhere. Kyle loved it there. He still was in shock over it being shut down. He had never really understood _why _it was shut down. All he had known was-

Kyle was brought out of his thoughts by the sudden pattering of feet across the floor. He opened his eyes and glanced quickly over at the other side of the bunks. Ryker's form was still on his level, which meant that Syrus must have gotten up.

"Chazz," came a whisper. " Chazz, w-wake up." There was the sound of some being shaken.

"Nn?" The sound of sheets shifting and a mattress creaked. Chazz must have sat up. His voice was hushed as well. "Oh, Sy, it's you. Sorry, earplugs."

"Th-that's okay." A sniff followed this sentence. Was Syrus crying or something? Chazz was evidently worried as well.

"What's wrong? Sit down." Another creak and the sound of clothes against clothes, which Kyle couldn't make sense of, unless the two were, like, embracing or something. Which was preposterous…right?

"N-nothing." Syrus's voice wavered. "It's st-tupid."

"Don't be an idiot. Tell me what's bothering you. Now." That was an order, but said in a soft, kind voice.

"It's just…It's just…d-do you regret leaving North Academy?" The bluenette finally asked. Kyle's ears perked up. This was interesting!

"What? Why?" Chazz asked, worry and distress in his tone.

"B-because! You w-were so popular there and had so m-many friends and they all really like you and you seem to really like th-them and-" Chazz cut him off.

"Syrus, are you _jealous_?" His voice seemed entirely too pleased to be upset anymore. "Over _me_?"

"Sh-shut up!"

"You are! You are jealous! I can't believe it."

"W-well you could say something to make me feel b-better, you know!" Syrus complained, cutting Chazz's smug-fest short.

"Oh, right." Sometimes Kyle was sure that his idol was an idiot. Though he was more than a bit lost at the moment. "Listen, Syrus. You're right, I did like North academy. I liked the other kids. They respected me and it was nice. I was able to make frien-um, I had familiar associations with several of the kids there. But I never, ever regret coming back here."

"R-really?"

"Yeah."

"You d-don't like any of them b-better than me? N-not even, like, K-kyle?" Woah! Way to suddenly bring the eavesdropper into the discussion!

"What the fuck? No! Kyle? The kid's thirteen! What kind of pedophile do you take me for, anyway?" Ew. Ew, ew, ew. The implications of that statement were disgusting. He thought of Chazz as a _big brother_. Ew!

"Well, I dunno. You did pick him to be your host-buddy thing and st-stood up for him and stuff."

"So? He's a nice kid and the other duelists pick on him, if you hadn't noticed. He's pretty talented, too." Kyle was resisting the urge to get up and dance around. Praise, he was getting praise! Woohoo! "He's like one of my little cousins or something." Cousin? Well, it wasn't brother, but close enough for now!

"Well, fine, b-but you know what I mean! I'm sure a lot of those boys, you know, like you and they probably are stronger than me, and better d-duelists than me, and better looking than me and-"

"Syrus!" Chazz whispered, hushing the other boy. "Listen to me. You are my boyfriend. I love you. I'm not going to fall for any muscle-guy from the North who sucks up to me because I beat him and has a funky accent, got it?"

WOAH! B-boyfriends? Love? Funky accents? That was a lot of sudden information for Kyle's poor brain to handle at one time! Though it did explain many things, now that the young boy thought about it…Hah. Kyle felt smart. Except for when he was feeing stupid for not figuring out sooner. Bummer...Life-1, Kyle-0

"Besides," Chazz was continuing in an angrier tone. "It's not like I didn't notice one or two boys shooting _you_ looks and Ryker was blatantly hitting on you earlier."

"Now who is the jealous one?" Syrus whispered smugly.

"Well, I have a right to be." Chazz returned in a self-satisfied tone. "After all, you're _mine_ and if any of those stupid assholes think they can even _try_ to take you from me I will personally make sure that they lose the ability to ever think those kinds of thoughts again."

"Th-that's awfully possessive."

"I'm a greedy person."

"Oh, come off it, Chazz." Syrus teased. "Everybody knows that you'rr not as bad as you pretend to be. Inside you're just a big softy." Chazz gave a mock-gasp of outrage.

"I resent that! I'll have you know that I am every bit as mean, spoiled, manipulative and sadistic as my reputation says." He huffed.

"Oh, shut up and kiss me." The rest of the night passed with Kyle desperately wishing that the couple would remember that he was right above them, albeit feigning sleep.

-10-

Thanks for reading! As always, feedback is appreciated muchly! Particularly if it involves who you want Bastion with.

I was also wondering how'd you guys would react to Chazz becoming a better duelist, aka beating Bastion and maybe eventually beating Jaden. He's my favorite character, ya know? Plus it'd make Jaden less of a Mary Sue if he got beaten more often. Damn Canon Sue. I think that Chazz deserves it. –sniff-

Hearts!

Rose


	11. Bikinis and Boyfriends

**Warnings: **yaoi, swearing, **OOCness**, lots of talk about bazoombas(b00bs, you plebes), het, fluff, streaking(I kid not)

**Disclaimer: **-waves gold watch in front of reader's eyes- Rose owns Yu-Gi-Oh! GX…Rose owns Yu-Gi-Oh! GX…aw, fine, I don't. –pouts-

**Summary: **Alexis argues with her friends over her swimsuit choice and cuddles with Jaden during some conversations.

**Other:**I am sorry that you guys had to wait a month. I was having some health issues and was in the hospital for a while, which wasn't very conductive to writing. Then it was Hanukkah, blah blah blah. Anyway, Happy Holidays!

Oh yes, and it kind of struck me about Zane and Atticus, or at least **my** Zane and Atticus- They sure act a lot like Hatori and Ayame/Shigure from Fruits Basket. Especially in this chapter. XD

Dedicated to **TFRiD Queen**, **JadenYukiAlexisYuki**, and all the people who are really only reading this for Alexis/Jadenism. Here you are, m'dears.

(OMG Someone gave me a Chazz Doll in a review. SO…MUCH…LOVE!!!)

-11-

Alexis heaved a great sigh and sat up, slapping her alarm clock irritably. It was a Saturday, wasn't it? Why had she set her alarm clock? Why was she up? Ugh, mornings disgusted her. Why on earth was she in one?

"Alexis! Wakey-wakey!" Someone was bouncing on her bed. Two someones, in fact. A dark haired someone and a someone with auburn hair. Oh, of course. Mindy and Jasmine.

"Did you forget? We're going to the Duel Academy hot spring today!" Mindy was saying. "You have to get up and get dressed! Maybe you could invite your brother and Zane along, too. They are so dreamy!"

"Atticus doesn't like girls." Alexis muttered under her breath. Suddenly, all motion stopped and two heads turned toward her.

"What? I smell gossip!" Jasmine shrieked. Alexis rubbed her eyes and hastily covered up her slip-up.

"I said, Atticus has a lot of girls. I doubt he'll be able to come. Besides, the pool'll be pretty crowded, what with all of us and guests-of-honor." She argued. "He and Zane will probably be too busy doing, well, duel stuff."

"Oh, come on!" Mindy pouted. "You Rhodes'! Jeez! You're always working on duel stuff, you and your Slifer friends. Lighten up! Besides, the more people are there, the more people will get to see us in our bikinis!"

"Well, that's great for you girls, but I'm wearing a one-piece." Alexis said, getting up and brandishing her sensible navy blue swimsuit at her friends. Who promptly burst into tears. "What?" She asked, annoyed and a little concerned.

"It's just…so…depressing!" Jasmine wailed. "You're so pretty and have such nice, big boobs but you're going to lose your boyfriend because you dress like a prude!"

"What? Jaden loves me no matter what I wear, idiots." Alexis protested and crossed her arms over her chest self-consciously. "And leave my breasts out of it!" She demanded.

"How can we? They're your best trait!" Mindy lamented. Alexis gave her an annoyed look and smacked her friend over the head.

"Excuse me? Thanks a lot, Min, you're a real pal." She snapped sarcastically. Mindy shook her head and flapped a hand.

"No, no, that's not what I meant. I mean, your face and hair and whatever are nice and all, but be realistic. The only reason a guy ever even looks at a girl's face is if he has already checked out her boobs and found them satisfactory!"

"I'll have you know that Jaden is different from all that!" Alexis exclaimed in defense of her boyfriend. "He liked me as a friend and duelist before he ever even noticed my boobs!" She argued. Jasmine rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. So, he's, like, crazy. We all knew that when he talked to the monkey." The girl said, waving her hand dismissively.

"Yeah, to rescue you!" She argued. Jasmine continued, pointedly ignoring her blonde friend.

"Anyway, I'm sure he doesn't _mind_ the boobs." She concluded. "Think of them as, um, like the cherries on top of the sundae!"

"More like the watermelons." Mindy put it. She had retrieved a brush from somewhere and was yanking it through her auburn hair.

"Do you two _mind_?" Alexis hissed, jumping out of her bed and running toward their attached bathroom. "I'm going to take a shower and when I get out I'm going to put on my bathing suit. The sensible, modest bathing suit that belongs to me, thank you very much."

"Fine, Mrs. Boring-and-Mundane Rhodes." One of the two said. Alexis wasn't really sure which one, as she had already ducked into her bathroom-turned-sanctuary and slammed the door closed. Oh yes, a nice warm shower would make her feel much better. Particularly if she finished and suddenly had two new roommates.

Unfortunately, it seemed as wishes didn't always come true. When she had dried her hair and wrapped a towel around her slender frame she stepped out to find her annoying best friends were still there and had matching innocent expressions plastered on their faces.

"What are you two up to now?" She asked warily, walking over to pick up her suit, only to find it missing. "And where's my clothes? I don't care how nice you two think my chest is; I'm not going naked."

"So, Alexis, you really think that Atticus and Zane won't come?" Jasmine asked in a sugary tone, completely disregarding Alexis's words.

"Huh? Yeah, they aren't going to want to come. Sorry girls." It was the truth as she figured it, anyway. She knew her brother was bummed about how Zane was leaving at the end of the year-she could just think about how bad she was going to feel at the end of next year, when she'd have to leave Jaden! The very thought made her upset and she didn't know how Zane and Atticus could stand it.

Anyway, so it made sense the two would want to spend time together, doing, well… _Each other, _the voice in her head that sounded like Chazz said, but she ignored it. Doing couple stuff, she finally decided on.

"So you're sure? You're positive?" Mindy asked, her voice filled with sweetness that would have set of Alexis's warning bells if she hadn't been distracted by her thoughts and looking for her stray clothes.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. Now where are my clothes?" She asked, annoyed.

"Hah! So you are sure! You're willing to bet on it! If Atticus and Zane agree to come with us, we get to give you a better bathing suit!" Both girls squealed and Alexis found herself yanked out into the hallway and being pulled out toward the boys dorms.

"Eek! Stop it! I'm not wearing any clothes!" She shrieked. "I never agreed to any of this!"

"I'd be quiet unless you want to wake up everyone nearby!" Mindy taunted while Jasmine stifled a giggle. "We don't mind-we're wearing pajamas. I doubt either you or Jaden wants all of Obelisk to see you in the nude!"

"I hate both of you!" Alexis snarled, but she was sure to keep her voice hushed. She didn't want this debacle to get out into the school gossip chain.

"Oh, Atticus! Zane!" Jasmine called, knocking on the correct door. "We have a situation and we really need your help! Alexis is in trouble!"

"Only because of you two!" She growled as the door was flung open to reveal a worried looking Atticus with no shirt on and Zane in background, sitting on the bed looking bleary.

"Alexis, are you okay?" Atticus was frantically saying. "Wah! Why is my sister naked?" He yelped as he noticed that her only coverage was the towel. Alexis felt her cheeks burning in embarrassment at the whole situation. Mindy and Jasmine pushed her inside and closed the door behind them, giggling evilly.

"Give me a shirt or something, you twit!" Alexis hissed miserably, hugging her towel closer to her body. Atticus jumped and ran to get grab a shirt off the floor, He sniffed it and wrinkled his nose approvingly.

"This one seems pretty clean. Here." He said and tossed her the shirt, which was long and black. She pulled it on and let her towel drop to rest around her hips, feeling much more covered. She really wished she had underwear, though. Stupid Mindy and Jasmine.

"So, you and Zane must be wondering why little Lexi here is running around in the buff." Jasmine said, flicking her hair.

"Nnmph." Zane mumbled and flopped back onto the bed, burying his face in the pillow as the girls looked on in amazement.

"Zane isn't much of a morning person." Atticus offered with a doting look in his eyes. Then he seemed to remember what was going on. "But I would certainly like to know why my sister has taken up streaking! I mean, it's great that she is embracing her sexuality and all but I would rather she kept those practices to Jaden and her bedroom!"

"This was not my choice!" Alexis grumbled. "And can we _not_ discuss Jaden and my sexuality? You're my older brother!" Mindy snickered and cut in.

"Okay, okay, we'll fill you in on the situation!" She gasped between her bouts of giggles. She took a cleansing breath and slammed her fist into her palm suddenly, making both Rhodes duelists jump. "At this moment in Duel Academy, under our very noses, an abomination is taking place!"

"A true tragedy!" Jasmine agreed, wiping a fake tear away. Alexis snorted, wondering why she had to be friends with such drama queens. "You see, our darling Alexis is headed straight for heartbreak!"

"What? Why?" Atticus asked, seemingly enthralled by the overacted tale.

"Imagine this- Jaden is a teenage boy, caught in the grip of his hormones and a slave to the new ideas of girls and sex that have just begun to enter his mind." Mindy took over the narration again, using elaborate hand gestures to illustrate her point.

"He has a girlfriend, one Alexis Rhodes. She is not only gifted with a quick mind and kick ass dueling skills, but also is equipped with a pretty face and two very large boobs!" Alexis made a sound that sounded a lot like '_meep_!' and crossed her arms over her chest again. Did they have to be so crude about it? Jasmine just smirked at her in response.

"Now, this might seem like a win-win situation for everyone, except for one small problem." Mindy let her voice drop so that they had to lean in a bit to hear her clearly. "You see, darling Alexis was…a prude!"

"Oh, the horror!" Alexis glared at her brother. He didn't have to get so into this, this _idiocy_.

"I know, I know." Jasmine agreed with a fake-sniff. "You see, a group of the couple and their friends were going to the hot springs, and Alexis was planning to wear…to wear…oh, Mindy, you do it, I can't go on!" She said and buried her face in her hands, pretending to be shaken by sobs.

"Of course." Mindy agreed graciously and cleared her throat. "As Jasmine was saying, Alexis was planning to wear…this!" With that, she flourished Alexis's bathing suit.

"The atrocity!"

"You had it all along?" The blonde shouted, over riding her brothers exclamation. "Give that to me!"

"But wait! Atticus, you hold the power to change this before it's too late, before Jaden sees her in this and decides his hormones like someone else better!" Jasmine cried out triumphantly, evidently forgetting that she was supposedly bawling moments earlier. Alexis gnashed her teeth as she was ignored.

"I do?"

"Yes!" Mindy agreed enthusiastically. "For Alexis has agreed that if you and Zane come to the hot springs with us, we get to rip up this rag and give her a nice bikini!"

"I never agreed to this!" Alexis argued again and seethed as they carried on as if she hadn't spoken.

"Please do it! For the sake of your sister!" Jasmine pleaded.

"But of course!" Atticus laughed. "How could I say no?"

"Hurray!" Jasmine squealed and grabbed a pair of scissors form a nearby desk. She slashed through the navy suit before Alexis could react.

"Hey!" She shouted, surprised and annoyed. "I paid good money for that!"

"Really? For this piece of trash?" Mindy asked, wrinkling her nose as she inspected the now-ripped swimwear. "Poor dear, you got scammed."

"I did not! That was a fine swimsuit!"

"Huh. Seems to me that it's not very sturdy." With that, the auburn haired girl pulled viciously until the garment ripped along the tear. "See? Split right open."

"Yes, because you two cut it up!" Alexis snapped.

"Ah well. You can't wear it now." Jasmine smirked. "And do I ever have the best bikini for you! Believe me, Atticus, you won't regret this."

"I never thought I would." Atticus snickered. Suddenly he became completely serious. "Though if you just wanted me to come, you didn't have to go such lengths. You could have just asked. After all, I can never refuse such beautiful girls." He murmured as he caught Jasmine's hand up and brought it his lips before turning and doing the same thing to Mindy.

"Oh my…" Jasmine pressed her hands to her red cheeks as both girls swooned, much to Alexis's disgust. Suddenly, Atticus yelped as his head smacked forward.

"Stop being such a blatant flirt." Zane growled from behind his secret boyfriend, who turned to him with a surprised look.

"Zane! I thought you were still asleep!" The blue-haired duelists gave him a disgusted look, which bounced off the cheery boy beaming face.

"All your chattering woke me up." The elder Truesdale brother said in a waspish tone. Atticus only smiled sweetly. "What if I don't want to go to the hot springs?" If Zane was any lesser being, his tone might have been rather petulant.

"Aw, c'mon, please?" Atticus begged, drawing out the word please into a whine. "Pretty please?"

"I was going to study today." The girls kept silent, wisely deciding that convincing Zane was the former Shadow Rider's area of expertise.

"I'll help you study later. Come on, Zane. For me?" Zane sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Fine. I'll go."

"Yay!" Mindy, Jasmine and Atticus all squealed while Alexis and Zane traded long suffering looks.

"Now, hurry, Lex, we need to get you into that bikini, then go get Marlon, Lenny and The Czar." And so Alexis found herself pulled along in the whirlwind that was her friends once more.

-11-

"You look amazing!" Jasmine fawned as Alexis glanced at herself warily in the mirror, twisting and turning to see new angles. Okay, so it wasn't too, too bad. It wasn't as, well, slutty as she had assumed it would be, and she had to admit that the sherbert-y pink color looked good on her.

She had expected it would be a string bikini, like her friend's were wearing, but it wasn't. The bottom piece was the same while the top was a tube with a connecting string that went up her chest, then split and circled her neck. It really managed to contain and flatter her curves, a fact that surprised and pleased her.

'I…I guess its okay." She finally admitted. Mindy shrieked happily and flung her arms around the taller girl, making them both stumble. "Stop looking so smug about it." She griped.

"Oh, you hush. You know you love how you look. Jaden will, too- all the guys will!"

"Aw, I just realized that seeing you looking this yummy might be kind of mean to Chazz." Jasmine realized aloud. Alexis turned to her, brow curling in confusion.

"Chazz?" She repeated, perplexed.

"Yeah, Chazz. He used to have a huge crush on you, it was so obvious. Oh, poor him." The dark haired teen lamented.

"I think he'll be fine…" Alexis said, thinking of the boy's relationship with Syrus.

"Yeah, Alexis is right!" Mindy piped up. "I mean, I think he's moved on. I'm sure of it. I saw him kissing some girl down by the lighthouse the other day."

"What? Really?" Alexis blinked.

"Mmhm! I couldn't really see her, I was pretty far away and it was dark out, but he was definitely kissing someone."

"You really couldn't see her? Nothing?" Jasmine asked eagerly. "If there's anything you got to tell me-this is such good gossip!"

"Well, she was really small, I think, and had lighter hair. If we tell a lot of people we can probably figure it out!"

"Guys, I don't think you should spread this around." Alexis cut in quickly. "I mean, come on. Chazz is my friend and if it's a new relationship you don't want to spoil it by freaking them out or something." After all, the last thing those two needed was hordes of obsessive fangirls trying to figure out who Chazz's mystery 'girl' was.

"Ugh, fine, be a spoilsport. Okay, let's go!" Alexis pulled her normal uniform over her new swim suit and they set out to go pick up their friends.

-11-

Alexis paused shyly by the edge of the hot spring, hesitant to drop her towel. She bit her lip and bravely placed the fluffy white cloth down on a rock and turned.

"Wow, Lex. You look…" The blonde duelist felt herself blushing as Jaden's eyes swept appreciatively over her body. She placed a hand on her hip.

"I look what?" She asked teasingly.

"You look fantastic. Not that, um, you don't always look amazing, I just meant that, I mean, um," He scrambled, hurriedly back tracking in fear of offending his girlfriend. She giggled and put a silencing finger on his lips.

"I know what you mean, Jaden. Stop worrying. Thanks, and you look cute, too." She said before leaning to brush a kiss onto Jaden's cheek to make him blush.

"Oh, get a fucking room, will you?" A sarcastic voice rang out behind her. She turned to see Chazz with a disgusted look on his face and Syrus hovering slightly frantically around him.

"Chazz! Don't swear! They can kiss and stuff if they want to." The bluenette scolded his boyfriend. The pale boy just sighed and rolled his eyes. Alexis narrowed hers..

"You know, Chazz, you don't have to comment every single time me and Jaden interact. It's not an obligation or anything. It's not your job." She snapped. He folded his arms and glared right back at her.

"I know- I do it for free. You lovebird types just really make me sick." He stated and then dived into the water so that Alexis couldn't get in the last word, much to her annoyance.

"Cha-azz!" Syrus wailed, jumping in after him. "Don't be mean!"

"Oh, don't mind him." The small kid, Kyle, piped up. "He just likes being the center of attention." He quipped and was promptly smacked upside the head by the kid called Bayle.

"Nobody asked your opinion, smallfry." The larger boy said gruffly before cannon balling into the warm water. Kyle rolled his eyes and made a face at the other boy's back, causing Alexis and Jaden to break out in fits of laughter before entering the warm water themselves.

-11-

The Obelisk Queen raised her hands above her and stretched languorously before leaning her head down again on her boyfriends shoulder. After swimming for a bit, the group had decided to eat the packed lunch. They had split off into smaller groups to be able to fit on the picnic blankets that Dorothy had helpfully sent along with them.

Alexis was with Jaden, of course. Syrus had wanted to be near his best friend, so he had dragged Chazz over, meaning that a whole mess of NA students had wanted to be on the blanket. Chazz had, in rather rude words, told them where to go but finally relented enough to let Kyle and Ryker sit near their buddies. Bayle and The Czar were apparently too busy ogling Mindy and Jasmine to put up a fight and Nash was content to sit with Bastion's group. Zane and Atticus had disappeared into the woods a bit before, but Alexis was trying not to think about that.

"I can't believe the school year's almost over." Syrus said, breaking the lazy silence. Alexis nodded and felt Jaden doing the same, though she had closed her eyes.

"I know what you mean, Sy." The brown haired boy spoke up. "I mean, it feels like I barely got here!"

"Don't be an idiot, Yuki. This has been the longest school year ever." Chazz grumbled. Alexis rolled her eyes behind her lids. "It should feel even longer to you-after all, you were in one place the whole time."

"Hey, that's right, Chazz! It must feel like you had three school years!" Jaden exclaimed. The boy in question made a disgusted noise.

"Oh, why do I even bother talking to you Slackers?" He asked rhetorically. Alexis opened her eyes and sat straight to give him a flat, disbelieving look. He pretended he couldn't see her.

"Well, I dunno, Chazz." Kyle spoke up. "I mean, if you really hate them, you could just go and sit over with the other Obelisk girls, or you could have just not come." Chazz turned and interesting shade of pink and glared, sputtering.

"Well-that is-oh, shut it, Kyle. I'm too tired to kick your ass today. Count yourself as lucky." He finally snapped. "And stop laughing, Alexis, or you'll get a hernia. You too, Jaden. And you, Syrus."

"Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present The Chazz. Always so eloquent, he is a rue elitist duelist." Ryker intoned gravely, making the DA students laugh even harder, much to Chazz's evident dismay.

"I hate my life. I hate all of you." He bemoaned, flopping backwards to stare at the sky. When several seconds passed and his friends still hadn't stopped laughing. He growled. "Oh, shut it, all of you. It's not that funny."

"Yes, it is." Alexis gasped between her giggles. Chazz snorted in reply, but the blonde duelist didn't really care. She wiped her eyes and took a few breaths to calm down before trying to steer conversation back to the original topic. "So, right, summer's coming. What're all of you planning to do over the break?" She asked.

"Well, I'm staying with my aunt for a while, while my parents help Zane settle into his dueling university and all." Syrus said with a sigh. "I'll probably spend most of my time babysitting my younger cousins."

"My parents are taking me to visit America." Jaden said with excitement. "I be there are loads of cool new duelists over there!" Alexis smiled at her boyfriend's enthusiasm.

"I'm going to be a counselor at a young duelist's camp." She said, answering her own question.

"Wow, that sounds neat." Kyle said. "My parents enrolled me in some kind of travel program for fourteen year olds to go around Japan's biggest cities- they say I should hang out with more kids my age."

"I wonder why." Ryker rolled his eyes sarcastically and flicked the young boy's ear when Kyle tried to swat him on the arm. "I'm just staying home, hanging out. I might get a job as a lifeguard or something."

"What about you, Chazz?' Syrus asked when his boyfriend stayed silent, staring up at the cloud.

"Oh, you know." He answered vaguely. "I'll probably just end up hanging around the mansion all summer. I might get forced to go to a party or two. Who knows, my brothers might even stick me in some more televised duels-to try and regain the family honor and get me back on track with The Plan and all."

"But…I thought you were disowned." Alexis blurted out and winced. _Smooth_, she thought to herself, but Chazz didn't snap at her. In fact, when he spoke, his voice was neutral, too neutral to be natural.

"Oh, I am, sort of. Actually going through all the legal paperwork and finding some family to adopt or at least foster me until I'm of legal age wouldn't look good on my brother's track records. Slade's going up for re-election soon and they don't want me to get in the way."

"Ah…I see…I guess." Alexis finally said into the awkward silence that had fallen.

"What does that mean exactly? For you, I mean?" Syrus wanted to know. Chazz flapped a hand lazily.

"Well, it depends. Either I win a lot and they reinstate me into The Plan, or I don't and they just sort of let me fade into oblivion and try to quietly wipe records of my affiliation to them away without people noticing."

"That's awfully cold." Ryker said softly. Alexis nodded, worrying her lip in sympathy for her friend. Chazz snorted.

"Whatever." He said. "So, America, huh, Jaden? Are your parents sure that's a good idea? I mean, you can barely communicate with people who speak the same language as you on a good day." And so the topic was effectively changed.

-11-

There you have it, folks. Next chapter will probably be about exams and saying g'bye to friendsies before vacation. There will be a few vacation chapters, then back to the regularly scheduled program.

Oh, but before I let you go, I have a confession to make:

**I am a shallow, shallow person.**

It's true. I judge people based on their appearances. I do not have a single excessively ugly friend. It's horrible, I know, but I can't help it. It's not that I think their any less of a person, it's just that, well, if it hurts, really, really hurt to look at someone, I can't form any kind of meaningful relationship with them.

Now, that's in real life. In fandomness, it's more pronounced. Why? Okay, well these characters are drawn. Someone put thought into them. They do amazing shit so we know it's not supposed to be excessively realistic. If it was, they'd all have acne. Accept that and move on. The point is:

**I am unable to give a shit about ugly characters.**

I just can't. I try, I really do. But I can't. So you can basically count on the fact that when the next year starts up, the Czar and Bayle will pretty much disappear. Chum' might've, too, but I have plan for him and eh ahs a role in the story, Also, Banner's neck is never going to make an appearance.

I thank you for your time.

Happy Holidays!

Rose


	12. Tutors and Triumphs

**Warnings: **yaoi, het, oocness, OCs, swearing, blahdidyblah.

**Disclaimer: **The characters/setting/etc belong to the makers of YGOGX, and dueling info came form both Janime and the upperdeckentertainment yu-gi-oh site, which you can get to from the wikipedia article on duel monsters. It has an interactive demo and FAQs and stuff.

**Summary: **Chazz gets suckered into being helpful, has a phone call, duels and makes a new 'friend' One of the last happy, fluffy chapter, so enjoy it while you can.

**Other: **Longest Chapter yet. W00000t. It also had, like, 4 or 5 more pages that I took out because they sucked. Majorly. It was like this really random and weird conversation between Bastion and Chazz that was a) incredibly awkward and b) insanely repetitive. There is a shorter, better version of it in the chapter.

There were sooo many people who I wanted to dedicated this to! Gah! So I chose four.

**yamitenshikagome**for being such a loyal reviewer! I really needed to dedicate a chapter to you before this…-feels guilty-

**DesertRose89**: For giving me a pair of Syrus/Chazz dolls. ZOMG. Just…XOMG. –dies fangirlishly-

**Winter Yuy**: for such a lovely, long review! And for giving me the idea of Jaden accidentally falling off the island…-snert- And as for your comments on my little shallowness rant believe me, I myself am no 10! Though I know what you mean. So many people feel that they are unattractive, but I really believe beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I mean, I have had crushes on people who think themselves ugly or that most people would think that about.

And **mischeif-maker: **because otherwise I think she might kick my ass. Jkjk. Because she's reviewed a lot and makes me giggle Squee!

**Edit: **Thanks to **pyscotic KAT **for catching a grammar mistake in here. I edited it! Yay!

-12-

"I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail!" Chazz sighed, rubbing at his temple in an attempt to calm his aching head. He waited until Syrus passed by him, wringing his hands, and then stuck his foot out, effectively tripping the smaller boy. He grabbed the back of the boy's red blazer and pulled him toward him, completely ruining the bluenette's center of balance. He then proceeded to clamp a pale hand over the offending mouth.

"You're not going to fail, Syrus, so quit stressing." He said in what he hoped was a reasonably reassuring tone. "Now, please shut up. You're cute, but you're wearing my patience thin." He flashed a quick smile at his boyfriend to soften the impact of his words as he dragged the smaller boy to sit next to him on the bed.

"Yeah, like you ever had any patience, Chazz." Jaden chuckled from the other side of the room. The annoying Slifer had committed a breaking and entering on Chazz-well, Syrus had let him in, but whatever- citing loneliness as the cause for his unwanted presence. The school had scrounged up enough extra rooms for the North Academy students so they were all gone, but, strangely enough, Syrus was being rather slow about moving his stuff back. Needless to say, Chazz wasn't jumping to help. As for Chumely, the fat boy had disappeared off to the library to study by himself.

"The simple fact that you're still alive, Slacker, is proof enough that I have both patience _and_ self control." He snapped, thoroughly annoyed. He was trying to study! Exams were barely a day away, after all, and he'd be damned if he got anything less than an A+.

No, Chazz didn't consider himself a perfectionist. Why?

"Aww, Chazz, be nice!" Syrus scolded, pushing the black haired boy's hand away from his mouth.

"Yeah, Chazz, be nice." Jaden echoed a beat behind his friend. Chazz gave him a glance meant to convey the depths of his hatred and frigid sense of bitter irony. The brown-haired idiot only grinned, oblivious.

"Fine, but first I have to politely inform Jaden that he does not get the privilege to tell me to be nice, ever. In fact, he should refrain from doing so ever again if he wants to retain his teeth. And I should warn both of you that if I explode from excessive buildup of sarcastic comments, it's on your heads." He said darkly, glowering at the other two before taking refugee behind his text book.

"Wah!" Syrus screamed. "No! Chazz! You need to help me! I don't want to fail! Chazz!"

"You'll do fine as long as you shut up and study." He said absently, trying to do a difficult chemistry problem in his head. "Ask Jaden. He likes giving pep talks."

"You'll do fine, Sy." Jaden instantly broke in, just like Chazz expected. Incredibly predictable. Did he really lose to that slacker? Lame. "Don't worry about it!"

"How can I not? How can _you_ not?" Syrus asked, somewhat hysterically. "You haven't even opened a single book, Jay! How can you not be worried that you'll fail?" He wanted to know.

"Huh? Oh, I'm not worried. It's just a duel with another student, right? No need to worry, right?" Chazz gave his best annoyed sigh and slammed his palm against his face dramatically.

"Wrong and wrong again, idiot!" He practically shouted. "Don't you listen to anything, ever? The duel's only half of our grade. The other half is from a written test. It's like our entrance exams, get it? God, you are such a dumbass!"

"Chazz! Jaden is not a dumbass!" Syrus squeaked in protest. Chazz rolled his eyes and folded his arms over his chest.

"Oh, right, of course not. Actually, Jaden has a rare and unique form of genius that is out of the understanding of the rest of us so we just _think_ he's a dumbass. In reality, he is just operating on such a totally different level of understanding that we regulars can't relate to. Sorry, I forgot."

"Aw, thanks! I think you're pretty smart, too!" Jaden said gratefully. Chazz let out a growl of annoyance and had to count to ten in his head to refrain from chucking his book at the slacker's head.

"I was being sarcastic, and you just proved my point." He explained, struggling to keep his voice as neutral as possible. He turned and buried his head in his boyfriend's shoulder, ignoring that this meant he was both bent at a slightly uncomfortable angle and had blue hair tickling his ear. "Help me, Syrus, I feel the explosion coming on." He muttered.

"Eep!" Syrus squeaked on finding himself as an impromptu pillow. Chazz felt him raise his hand and tentatively pat the darkly clad boy's back in what the Princeton figured was supposed to be a soothing manner. "Though you haven't really been keeping any of it in, you know."

"You don't know what goes on in my head." He muttered caustically against the bluenette's neck, smirking when he felt the small teen shiver slightly.

"You know, Chazz," Jaden's obnoxious voice broke in, ruining the moment. "You've yelled at me and Alexis for just looking at each other and yet you can get all huggy with Syrus? What gives?"

"Well, to put it simply, Yuki," Chazz said with an evil smirk which was sadly invisible to Jaden. "You and Alexis are ugly; especially the 'you' part. Syrus and I are hot. There's the difference. Oh, and by the way?" He tacked on sweetly. "It's Alexis and me, not me and Alexis."

"That's it!" Syrus suddenly exclaimed joyfully. He jumped up with no warning, accidentally ramming his shoulder into the thin boy's nose and making his boyfriend fly back across the bed with an undignified 'oof!' to hit his head against the wall. Tiny flares of pain lanced there way from both sides of his head, making him wince.

Chazz was never one to let his displeasure go unknown. "Ow! Fuck! Syrus, that hurt!" He whined. The bluenette turned to see Chazz holding his nose while struggling to right himself. Chazz was gratified to see that his boyfriend's eyes immediately filled with distress.

"Oh no! Chazz, I'm sorry! Are you okay?" He asked worriedly. Chazz sighed dramatically and flapped his hand.

"I'll live. Continue. This better be worth it." He muttered, not willing to let the incident pass without remark but also hoping that Syrus would get that excited look back on his face. Damn his cuteness.

"Oh, right!" And there it was. "Well, I was thinking, Chazz is smart, right?" Chazz blinked, utterly lost.

"Of course I am!" He said, letting his bravado take over in an attempt to hide his complete confusion. "I was _the_ best Obelisk coming out of the Prep Academy, after all. You don't get to be that by just sitting round and looking nice."

"Well, yeah." Syrus said, clearly unsure how exactly to reply to that. He quickly recovered. "Anyway, since Jay and I are clearly going to fail, I was thinking-"

"-You could tutor us!" Jaden finished, evidently catching on to Syrus's plan.

"Hmm…let me think…no." He returned his attention to his book until someone began to pull on his arm. He looked up into glittering silver eyes and gulped audibly. Oh great, Syrus was going to manipulate him again, wasn't he?

"Please, Chazz? It would really be helpful and would mean so much to me…" He trailed off with a beseeching expression on his face. Chazz glared.

"Fine! You know, eventually I'll become immune to that." He threatened. "Just you wait."

"Er…immune to what?" Jaden asked. "Immune to studying? Immune to tutoring? Immune to helpfulness?" He went on to list as many things as he could think of, completely missing the point.

Chazz was seriously considering homicide.

-12-

It was weird. That was the only way to describe it. Weird. Chazz had thought that by this time, he would be yelling and throwing desks across the room, but, oddly enough, nobody had sustained a single injury thus far and it was almost calm in the little room.

Surprisingly, the former Obelisk was actually a good tutor. Once he worked some anger out of his system by ripping up Jaden's messy, half-assed notes, he simmered down to a calm and patient mood that most people didn't ever get to see.

"You're a fucking idiot, Yuki."

He was still Chazz, though.

"Huh? But I thought…" Chazz cut him off with a sharp pencil tap on the brown haired boy's notebook.

"No, you clearly did not think. If you had thought, perhaps you might have thought about the little fact that if you have fewer than three cards in your deck when Lady Assailant of Flames is flipped face up, the Flip Effect doesn't activate." He explained in the nicest way he knew.

"Really?" Jaden scratch his head. "You sure?"

"No, actually, I'm just messing with your head. Of course I'm sure! Jeez, if this whole pro dueling thing doesn't work out, you could probably become a professional village idiot."

"You think?" For some reason that completely escaped Chazz, Jaden seemed to be actually considering the possibility.

"Yes, yes, I do. It's one of those things that set us apart. I believe that being an idiot is one of your areas of expertise. In fact-"

"Oh, hi, Alexis!" Syrus sudden greeting distracted Chazz and he turned to se the blonde Obelisk standing in the doorway, a bemused expression on her face as she surveyed the scene before her.

"Hey, Syrus." She replied. "You're all studying, I take it?" Jaden bounced up and ran over to his girlfriend. Chazz averted his eyes when they went through their required sappy greeting smooch, but refrained from actually making a comment when Syrus gave him a fierce warning glance.

"I liked it better when you were a push over.' He muttered to his boyfriend.

"Wha?"

"Never mind." He sighed. He hadn't really meant it, anyway, he just liked to complain. He turned back to the intruders, aka Alexis and Jaden and ran a hand through his hair while Jaden responded to his girl's question.

"Yeah, Lex. Chazz is helping us study! He's really smart; you should have him help you, too!" Chazz jumped up when Alexis started nodding, looking all too interested in the offer.

"What? No way! This was a one time, two person only offer! I didn't want to do this! I was forced into this. I only agreed because, well, you know…" He trailed off with a miniscule gesture at Syrus, who smiled.

"No, Chazz, I don't know." Jaden said, confusion written all over his stupid face. "I thought you had agreed out of, like, the kindness of your heart."

"If you were anyone else I would think you were being sarcastic. I don't have any kindness in my heart!"

"Sure you do, Chazz!" Syrus piped up. "I can think of a lot of times when you've been really, really kind. Like when-" Chazz hurried to cut his boyfriend off before something embarrassing was said.

"Fine, but I only have a little and none of it is reserved for that Slacker." He finally said. He threw a disgusted glare at Alexis. "Stop laughing, woman." He snapped, sitting back down.

"Oh, stop pouting, you big baby." Alexis taunted, taking her boyfriend by the hand and sitting down across from Chazz and Syrus.

"I am not pouting!" He retorted, quickly withdrawing his lower lip. "Fine. Alexis can study with us, but if you expect me to help you, you ought to respect me."

"Alright, alright." Alexis agreed. "But only if you can explain to me about Archfiend cards. I know that we went over it in class, but Crowler always gets so off topic that my notes are everywhere."

-12-

"So, can any of you three imbeciles tell me why Example B is cheating?" He asked. "Come on, I promise that if you answer and are wrong, I won't make fun of you too badly."

"Watch who you're calling an imbecile, Princeton.' Alexis warned. "I'll have you remember that I got into Obelisk, too."

"Oh yeah? Well, you're a girl. It doesn't count. It's not as if they could put you in Slifer. Now, back to the question. Anyone going to venture a guess or must I insult you all some more?"

"Um…" Syrus hesitantly spoke up. "Is it because you can't summon Ray of Hope without having 2 LIGHT monsters in your graveyard?"

"Exactly!" Chazz beamed. "Right on all accounts. See, Syrus, you aren't going to fail. You're doing incredibly well"

"Hey! How come we don't get that kind of praise when we get something right?" Jaden wanted to know.

"Um, duh." Chazz turned back to his textbook and thumbed through it. "Lemme see, if I was Crowler, what would I ask…Besides things demeaning Jaden, of course, which I'd ask even as The Chazz…"

"Well, this has to be the strangest study session I've ever laid my eyes on." All four kids turned to see Bastion smirking from the doorway. "Mind if I join in?"

"Why do _you_ need any study help? I thought you were supposed to be Mr. Braniac or something." The youngest Princeton griped somewhat spitefully.

"Well, yes. However, since the whole Shadow Rider thing started up I have not been as focused as is probably expedient."

"Wah? Exponents? I thought we were focusing on dueling." Jaden whined. "Ow! Chazz! It hurts when you throw books at me!"

"Good, it's meant to hurt. He said expedient, not exponent. It means suitable or advisable. You really need to read more." He turned back to Bastion before Syrus or Alexis could voice any kind of disapproval toward his actions. "Is that all? Sucky reason."

"Well," Bastion admitted with a slight blush. "While I got the best score on the entrance exams, I didn't get a perfect score and when I went over everyone results I realized that every question I got wrong, you, Chazz, got right. I would like to remedy this matter and so it makes sense to get help from you."

"Fine, whatever. Professor Princeton could use a student who answers his questions with regularity. Sorry, Syrus. Now, Misawa, name two ways to Special Summon the card Freed the Matchless General from the graveyard."

-12-

"This is quite the operation you have going here." The unexpected voice, no matter how quiet and calm, made Chazz jump with surprise and almost fall off the roof that he was standing on.

"The 'little' tutoring group had grown larger and larger as more and more students caught wind of it and came to join in. After Mindy, Jasmine, a few Ras and half of Slifer dorm had asked to get in on the action; Chazz had decided it would be 'expedient', to quote Bastion, if they moved to a bigger space.

This meant that he had made all of his 'students' sit on the ground before Slifer while he lectured and questioned them from the roof, a perch he had deemed auspicious enough for his important nature. He liked being the sole black trench coat on top of the world, or dorm, rather, staring down at a liberal smattering of red and yellow blazers.

For whatever reason, Alexis and her sidekicks were the only Obelisks there. The others appeared to be boycotting Chazz now that he was a Slifer. Ah well, not to worry, if they were going to be that way, he didn't care if they all failed. They'd only ever liked him because he was rich, anyway.

The number of Obelisks present, however, had just jumped by roughly 66 percent when those two had shown up and made Chazz nearly fall to an early demise.

"Zane? Atticus? Why are you two here, braving it alone in Slifer territory?" He asked, trying to cover his near miss with a semi-asinine comment. Chazz was pretty good at those. "This is really more a freshman thing." Which was true enough, after all, Chazz didn't know what they taught in the second or third year and so couldn't quiz people on it.

"See, Zane? I knew he'd make some kind of sarcastic comment like that! Pay up!" Atticus held out a hand expectantly. Zane gave him an exasperated glance.

"Later, Atticus. Stop making us seem immature in front of the people we're supposed to be role models for." He hissed, but Chazz could still hear every word and snickered.

"Oh, right. The impressionable kiddies. I forgot." Atticus turned to the assorted first years and pinned them with a stern look. "Don't gamble, children. Or have big, gay, love af-"

"What Atticus and I are actually here to tell you," Zane broke in, pretending not to hear his lover speaking. "Is that the lists of the duel matches have been posted and the teachers were wondering why the only first years showing up were Obelisks."

"The lists are up?" Chazz felt his eyes widened. "Class dismissed and stay out of my way!" He quickly swung himself down onto the porch with the ease of practice from night spent stargazing from the roof and bolted down the stairs. He darted quickly among the masses of other students running toward the main office, thanking every deity he knew of for his lithe form, which made it easy to weave in and out of the others.

He shoved his way to the front of the group accumulating in front of the list and drew his finger down until he came to P and then quickly sought out his own name.

_Chazz Princeton…Bastion Misawa…1:30 exam room G_

"Well, Chazz, it looks like we're going to have a rematch." The polished voice came from around his left shoulder. He turned and smirked cockily.

"Not much of a rematch. I have an entirely different deck now." He reminded. "I'm a completely different person. If you think that…huh?" he turned to see Crowler sniffing arrogantly.

"Ah, yes, Mr. Princeton. You have a call in the office. Come along, now, please." The tall man said snootily before turned. Chazz followed the professor before realizing that practically all of their little group was following _him_. Syrus, Alexis, Chumely, Bastion, Zane, Atticus, Slacker, yup, seemed like everyone. He even saw Kyle hovering around the fringe.

"You know, I realize The Chazz irresistible but you don't have to follow me everywhere." He pointed out awkwardly.

"Well, it's just last time you went to get a call in the office, well, your brother's were trying to take over the school." Chumely explained. "Dunno about him, though." He said, jerking a thumb at Kyle.

"Me? Oh, I'm just bored." The small boy said. "You don't mind, Chazz, do you? Please can I come? Please?' He begged bouncing in circles around his hero until the taller boy felt his head spin.

"Stand still!" He barked, annoyed.

"If I stand still I'll get left behind." The preteen pointed out sensibly. Chazz felt himself twitch in irritation.

"Then just walk in a straight line, okay? If you're going to come then walk next to Jaden. I can't deal with annoyance from more than one side." He grumbled. He jumped when Kyle gave a happy shout and flung his arms about the dark boy's waist. "Get off of me, you twit!"

"Sorry, Chazz!" The boy said, not a bit apologetic and bounced over to begin an animated conversation with Jaden. Those two were irritatingly similar.

"Thank god." He muttered when they reached the doors. He walked in and waited for Crowler to press the button. A respectable looking young woman's face filled the screen. She appeared to be around her early thirties and was pretty in a quiet kind of way.

"Is this the young Mr. Princeton?" She asked. Chazz rolled his eyes.

"Take a wild guess. Hey, Leysa." He said. "What's new in the world of secretaries?" She cleared her throat.

"Is this the young Mr. Princeton?" She repeated, voice sounding strained.

"If you repeat stuff too many times I'll get bored. What's so important that you interrupted my very important intimidation of Misawa?" She clenched her jaw and suddenly leaned forward, her calm demeanor vanishing in the place of annoyance.

"Come on, Chazz! You know that the elder Mr. Princeton's are sticklers for procedure so would you please stop being an arrogant brat and pretend to be a good, dutiful brother until a time when I don't get caught in the crossfire?" She snarled before sitting back and going back into 'secretary mood'. Chazz smirked. You had to love Leysa. "Is this the young Mr. Princeton?"

"Yes, this is him. What is this call concerning?" He replied in practically the same tone of voice.

"Mr. Slade Princeton and Mr. Jagger Princeton send their well wishes for your exams and say that they are sure that you will do a service to the family and get perfect scores. Winning, of course, is the expected outcome of the duel portion." She said and shot a slightly sympathetic look at the camera. "Sorry." She whispered.

"When they say stuff like that, it makes me want to throw duels just to piss them off." Chazz muttered. Even though he knew that he wouldn't because he couldn't actually try to fail his brothers, as much as he wanted to.

"Did you say something, Mr. Princeton?" Leysa asked, which was obviously code for 'do you want me to put that on the record, please say no, I'm saving up for my wedding and getting fired because of you would really put a damper on those orchid arrangements?'

"No, I did not. Continue."

"Excellent, sir. They also say that they will send someone to pick you up in one of the helicopters promptly at the end of your last day and you aren't to be late as they have someone important that would like to make your acquaintance at dinner that night. Are there any return messages, sir?"

"Yeah, sure. Tell them that they can go to-"

"Chazz, please!"

"Sleep easy in the knowledge that I will be there on time.' Chazz continued smoothly, smirking evilly. Leysa growled and leaned forward.

"Don't make me come down there and kick your skinny ass, brat." She spat before writing down his message and offering him a polite smile. "Is that all, Mr. Princeton, sir?"

"Yes, that is all."

"Thank you for your consideration, Mr. Princeton." She leaned forward to cut the connection before pausing. "And please, please, please, do be on time, Chazz. You're sending me to an early grave already. Good luck, kid." The screen blacked out.

"Who was that?" Syrus asked in a rather awed tone of voice.

"Her? Oh, that was Leysa Ardwell. She's our family secretary. Her family's worked for mine pretty much forever. She's sixteen years older than I am, so she helped raise me. She's nice, but for whatever reason she seems stressed out a lot."

"You seem to be the cause of many headaches for her." Zane observed. Chazz adopted an innocent act, which, if his friend's reactions were any indicator, didn't work so well.

"Who, me?" He dropped the act and smirked. "Oh, don't worry about her- she's used to it. Besides, dealing with Slade and Jagger all the time, I feel it's my job to shake up her routine once in a while. Keep her on her toes. Now, if you don't mind, I need to go prepare to cream Bastion in our duel."

-12-

The match had already lasted 20 minutes. Bastion held the advantage right now but Chazz wasn't worried as he made his next move.

"I activate Dark Scorpion Tragedy of Love! Now, when Don Zaloog and Meanae the Thorn are on my field, I can sacrifice Meanae to destroy all the monsters on your field- in this case, your Super Conductive Warrior Linear Magnum Plus Minus!" Damn, Bastion's card had a long name. "Then I summon Spirit of the Breeze in attack mode."

"Are you sure you want to do that, Chazz? You do remember that your monster has no attack points." Bastion pointed out. Chazz just smiled smugly.

"Oh, I'm well aware of what I'm doing. Now I place a facedown and end my turn. Have a good draw, Bastion, you'll need it." He smirked. In the back of his mind, he was aware that a few kids were watching them, but he didn't let himself get distracted.

"I'm not too worried. I summon Mathematician. Due to its effect, I now send one card from the top of my deck to my graveyard. Now, Mathematician, destroy his Don Zaloog!" Chazz gritted his teeth as his monster exploded, voicing complaints about the matter the entire time. His life points dropped by 100 points, making them fall to the depressingly low number of 180.

"That all you got? Guess all your equations didn't work so well after all." He goaded. Bastion frowned at him.

"If I was n your position, Chazz, I would not be so cocky. I put a face down on the field and end my turn. Back to you." Bastion placed his card and nodded. Chazz drew, feeling very smug.

"Excellent. Now, during my standby phase, I activate my Spirit of the Breeze's special effect. As long as she's in attack mode, I get 1000 life points during my standby phase!" His points went up to 1180.

"No!" Bastion gasped.

"Yes!" He crowed. Then he turned a mocking smile back to his Ra friend. "Perhaps you should spend some more time learning the effects of weak cards." He taunted. That was the best part about using a deck with cards that nobody else wanted- nobody took the time to learn about them and so didn't expect him to use them well. "Maybe then you'd have destroyed her instead."

"Fine, then. Get all the points you want, Chazz- it won't change the outcome of this duel." Bastion snorted. Chazz sneered in reply.

"You're right- I'd win anyway. It just makes it easier in case my plan A doesn't work so well. Now I summon Masked Dragon to the field. Masked Dragon, attack his Mathmatician!"

"Huh? What's the point in that? My monster is stronger, so yours will be destroyed!" Bastion exclaimed. Chazz smirked and watched as that exact thing happened and ignored the 100 point drop to his life points as his trench coat ruffled around him.

"Good- that's exactly what I wanted to happen. You see, with Masked Dragon destroyed, its special effect kicks in. I can summon any dragon type monster with less than 1500 attack points to the field from my deck and I choose Armed Dragon LV3!" The orange monster appeared.

"So what? That's an even weaker monster than before and since you can't level it up until your next turn, I can destroy it beforehand!" Bastion argued.

"It's a good thing it isn't sticking around then, isn't it?" Chazz scoffed. "Because now I use my facedown spell card- Level Up! By sacrificing one monster with LV in its name, I can summon Armed Dragon LV5 regardless of Special Summoning rules! Now, using Armed Dragon special ability, I can send one card from my hand to the graveyard and a monster on your field with equal or less attack points is destroyed."

"My Mathematician!"

"Exactly." He discarded a card and the monster shattered while he laughed. "And now- Armed Dragon! Destroy him!" The monster complied and Bastion shouted while his life points drained down to 0. He fell to his knees.

"You"

"Go"

"Bye"

"Bye."

The monsters disappeared off the field and the duel disks deactivated. Bastion stood up and they made their way to the middle of their court where the proctor was waiting.

"Good duel, Bastion." Chazz said, controlling his natural impulse to gloat and rub it in the other boy's face as best as he could.

"Thanks. You too." Bastion said and smiled. They shook and turned to the proctor.

"Good job, both of you. Your results will be mailed to your place of residence over the summer. Remember, your grade is not decided on whether you won or lost but how well you played your deck and reacted to different situations. Thank you, you may both go."

The two walked in silence onto the grass where the group had decided to meet for goodbyes. Chazz was biting his lip to keep from jumping around shouting out how awesome he was for winning. He didn't want to hurt Bastion's feelings, which surprised him. He hadn't actually been aware that he gave a crap. He wondered when he'd grown a conscience. Probably when he started dating Syrus.

"You can let it out. I know you want to. I won't be offended, you know." Chazz blinked in surprise and turned to the smiling boy beside him.

"Seriously? You won't really?"

"I'll be fine. Come on, let it out. You look like you're about to burst." Chazz stared slightly at the smirking boy beside him and shrugged.

"All right, but I have to warn you I'm not going to be responsible for my actions in the next few minutes."

"Fair enough." Bastion nodded. Chazz took in a deep breath, let the feelings well up in him and let it all out in a rush.

"Hah! I won! The Chazz won! The Chazz rules all! Chazz it up! I am the most awesome…ever! I won! Hah! Hah! The Chazz rules, baby! The Chazz is unstoppable! The Chazz will conquer everything in his path because he is the Chazz and the Chazz is amazing because I won!" He fell back against the ground, exhausted from the demented little dance he had been doing around Bastion. He sighed and closed his eyes happily. "I won. I really, truly won." He murmured to himself, voice soft and ever so slightly disbelieving.

"Better?" Bastion asked, thoroughly amused. Chazz got up and brushed his coat off before nodding.

"Much. Thanks. You did duel really well, though." He offered in the closest he could come to an apologetic tone.

"Yes, I am rather pleased with my performance as a whole- I would have beaten most other decks. I think, however, if I am to beat you again I shall need to come up with a strategy for dealing with your…slightly unorthodox methods."

"What do you mean?" Chazz asked, genuinely interested. He glanced up ahead and saw the tree where they had been planning to meet. It looked as if they'd be the first ones there.

"Well, you must have realized by now that your deck is a very unusual one to use at an advanced level of game play. You use the monsters that most novices would deem useless, with very few exceptions. You don't use your cards individually, but, instead, you have them all interact with each other through sacrifices and effects. You also force your opponent to make choices that you set up to fool them into walking straight into your strategy."

"Wow." Chazz blinked. "I didn't realize you'd watched me duel _that_ closely. You're right, though. I do all those things. I can usually guess what the other person will do and so I try to set it up that their move will help me."

"Yes. You are one of the most interesting duelists to watch, actually. While you don't actually break any rules, you do things that people would never think of doing-like having your Masked Dragon go on that suicide mission so that you could go through all those moves and get Armed Dragon LV5 out."

"Well, I figured you wouldn't be expecting that." Chazz said modestly. Well, sort of. "Sometimes you just have to have one monster go on a mission doomed to fail if it means that over all your side will get stronger. Plus, it had the element of surprise I mean; you wouldn't think I'd sacrifice one of my better monsters, after all."

"Particularly if the only other monster you had out at the time had 0 attack points! Though her special effect sure would be useful." The Ra mused, tapping his chin thoughtfully. Chazz nodded.

"Yeah, but it works better if she's not the only monster on my field and the other person doesn't know about her ability. If they do, they'd probably attack her before she's useful. It'd be nice if I could get a card to give her more attack points."

"Hmm, yes." Bastion agreed thoughtfully as they arrived at the tree. Chazz placed a foot on knot and hefted himself up until he could perch on a branch above the normally taller boy's head. "Um, Chazz? You realize you are sitting in a tree, don't you?"

"No, Bastion. I was completely unaware. Thanks for enlightening me, hmm? Technically, I'm sitting _on_ a tree, you know. If I was sitting _in_ a tree I'd be rather sappy and suffocated by now." He pointed out, just to be a wiseass.

"Yes, but why?" Bastion wanted to know. Chazz smirked and replied, purposefully misunderstanding the question.

"Well, Misawa, it's quite simple. If I was inside the tree I'd probably be in the trunk section and as there isn't a lot of air down there- Ow! Okay, okay. No need to get violent." He grumbled, catching the pinecone which the exasperated boy had lobbed at him and tossing it back.

"What I meant, and what you know I meant, is why you are sitting on the tree branch and not on the ground like a normal person." Chazz snickered.

"I like being above you lesser beings." He said with a grandiose gesture that encompassed everyone milling around and earned him a stare or two. "Oh, look, here comes Syrus, Alexis and her brother. I better come down to say hello." He sighed and dropped down.

"I thought you were a duelist, not an acrobat." Bastion muttered. Chazz gave him a quelling look and was about to retort when something plowed into him in a blur of red, making him stagger and fall onto his back. He knocked his head on the tree trunk and saw stars for a few seconds. When his sight came back into focus, he realized he was staring up at a very excited bluenette who was squealing something repeatedly.

"I won, I won, I won, I won, I won, I won, I won!" He was saying repetitively. "I beat a _Ra_, Chazz! I won! I was so sure I was going to lose but I didn't because I won because instead losing I won and that means I won! I won, I won, I won!"

"Good job! I knew you could do it, Sy." Chazz exclaimed, a little wheezy. He had gotten the wind knocked out of him and was still recovering. The fact that his boyfriend was situating on his chest wasn't helping his breathing any, either.

"Um, Sy? I think you're hurting him." Great, now the Slacker had shown up along with Zane. They had been assigned to duel one another, an almost unheard of trans-grade match. Chumely, an excited Kyle and a downcast Czar were with them as well.

"Huh? Oh, no! I'm so sorry, Chazz! Are you okay?" Syrus quickly leapt off and extended a hand to help the other boy up. Chazz took it and decided a little payback was in order. He let the momentum carry him so that he 'stumbled' into Syrus and whispered quickly into the other boy's ear.

"Syrus, love, I thought we only did that sort of thing in private." He felt a surge of satisfaction when his boyfriend squeaked and turned bright pink as he realized what position the two had been in. In a louder voice, he went on. "Oh, dear, Syrus, I'm sorry for bumping into you? You look slightly red; maybe you should sit down or drink something. On days like this it's easy to get dehydrated and you look like you're about to pass out."

"Huh? Syrus looked fine until you crashed into him, Chazz. Did you hurt him by mistake or something?" Jaden wanted to know. Chazz groaned in annoyance.

"No, you idiot! Aren't you ever able to pick up on anything? Ever?" He growled, catching the other boy in a headlock and messing up his hair even more than it was already messed up.

"So this is the way the youngest of the Princeton brothers behaves?" A cold voice cut in from behind him. Chazz released Jaden, startled. "A pity." Chazz turned to see a tall, well dressed gentleman staring coldly down at him. He crossed his arms and glared.

"Who are you?" He asked in his best scornful voice. The others had gone quiet when the man had spoken.

"My name, Mr. Princeton, is Hilliard Oberton. I'm Mr. Slade Princeton's personal assistant's assistant." The man replied coldly, presenting a business card. Chazz took it and glanced over it. He rolled his eyes.

"Hilliard? Seriously? You must have some trauma." He muttered. The man's frown deepened. "I said I'd meet the helicopter at the official end of the school day. I still have an hour left." He snapped. "So get out of my sight."

"I decided to come an hour early." The man replied smoothly, icy demeanor never faltering. "The esteemed Misters Princeton and Princeton have appointed me to watch over you during the summer when they are unable to do so and I thought we should have time to get acquainted. I had heard a few things here and there and wanted to see if they were true. Evidently, they are.' He sneered, making it quite obvious that he was less than impressed.

"I don't need a nanny." Chazz scowled. "And especially one as moronic and dull as you seem to be."

"Your venerable brothers do not seem to agree, Mr. Princeton." The man remarked, unruffled. "They want someone to watch you so as to stop you if you seem about to do something," here a significant pause was taken. "_Brash_ that might reflect badly on your brothers…and yourself, of course."

"Of course." Chazz spat, true hatred coloring his voice as he clenched his fists at his sides, shaking with rage. "Well, too bad for them because I refuse to go anywhere with you. I'm old enough to think or myself."

"Oh, did I forget to mention? Your brothers are also deciding whether it would be the best course of action to remove you from Duel Academy and have you go into another field- I heard them talking about the military as an option. My input, which I can give at any time directly to your eldest brother, is vital in their decision making process." He pulled out a slim black cell phone. "I suppose if you really fell that way, I can always report that to your brother. I doubt he'll be pleased."

"You're bluffing." Chazz snapped, eyes glued to the phone. The man gave a cold chuckle and flipped open the phone.

"Am I, Mr. Princeton?" He asked, with a twisted smile on his face. He typed in a number and held the phone up to his ear. A few seconds later, he spoke. "Ah, Miss Ardwell, I'd like to speak to Mr. Slade Princeton. It's a rather urgent matter and-"

"Stop!" Chazz cried out, shoulder caving in, his head hanging in shame. "You win. I'll come." He said, voice barely above a whisper.

"Ah, never mind, Miss Ardwell. It seems the matter has resolved itself. Sorry for bothering you. Goodbye." He hung up and smirked down at the broken figure before him. "I knew you'd see it my way, Mr. Princeton. I do believe that the two of us will get along _famously_."

"Hey! You can't do that!" Both turned, having forgotten in their power struggle that they had an audience. Syrus was glaring, looking about imposing as it was possible to look for a boy his height. The others stood behind him, all with matching expressions.

"Chazz is a great duelist and you can't take him out of the academy!" Jaden said. Mr. Oberton raised his eyebrows, amused.

"Jaden is right." Alexis agreed. "So stop trying to-huh?" Chazz was shaking his head.

"Leave it." He growled. He didn't meet their eyes.

"But Chazz-"

"I said leave it, Syrus!" He snapped, lashing out. He could practically feel the hurt emanating from the bluenette. He winced. "I'll…I'll see you all next year, okay?" He turned and walked past his 'keeper', who smirked triumphantly at the students and took long strides to catch up with his charge.

"Now, Mr. Princeton, were those friends of yours? You do realize that your brothers aren't sending you here to make friends, don't you, Mr. Princeton?" Chazz nodded numbly, knowing their words were floating back to be heard by the other kids.

"I know." He answered, aware that he'd just be chastised if he didn't speak a reply aloud. "They aren't my friends. They're just…some random people dueled with." He also knew that if Slade and Jagger decided that the reason he was losing was because he was being 'distracted' by his friends, well, bad things might occur to the people he had started to care about.

He just didn't know if the others would understand that, too.

-12-

Squee! Okay, so the end sequence wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped it would be, but whatever. I hope none of you mind the two OCs introduced in this chapter, Leysa Ardwell and Hilliard Oberton. They'll both appear at other times when the plot picks up(coughnextchaptercough) and so I wanted to introduce them here.

Next chapter will be from Chumely's POV and there will be PLOT. Lots and lots of PLOT. After next chapter, there will not be so much happy-go-lucky duel academy romantic fun. No sirree. In fact, every single couple already established is going to have some major angst heading their way soon.

I already have most of the next five chapters planned. It's so exciting! I can't wait! –squeals and hugs self- in case any of you want to know, the order of POVs will go: Chumely, Syrus/Zane(unsure), Chazz, Bastion/Atticus(unsure).


End file.
